Shinachiku's First Adventure
by thesaiyanjedi
Summary: In a world at peace, a new generation is about to begin. Watch as young Shinachiku Uzumaki, son of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, embarks on his first real adventure, all the while his parents find themselves unearthing a plot that could spell disaster for the Hidden Leaf Village and the world as they know it. Will their love survive? NaruSaku.
1. Chapter 1--The Exposition

Hello, my name is thesaiyanjedi, and this is my very first attempt at writing fanfiction. Like many of you I found myself disappointed at the ending to the Naruto manga. However, I am very pleased that there are still plenty of devoted NaruSaku fans out there who are continuing to write excellent fan works of this terrific couple in spite of what happened in the final two chapters and in "The Last: Naruto the Movie."

Let me be clear that I mean no disrespect to the NaruHina and SasuSaku communities, I am happy for you that you got the ending that you wanted, even if I do not agree with it. This is just my own personal idea for what could have happened after the main story ended in a universe where Naruto and Sakura had gotten together. There is a character created by the NaruSaku community named Shinachiku Uzumaki, the son of Naruto and Sakura, who even has his own tumblr and Facebook pages, and I thought it would be an interesting and different approach to a NaruSaku story to try and develop a first adventure for him, while at the same time tying it into a new adventure that his parent's will be facing.

I should also say that as this story goes along there will be inspiration taken from other sources, such as other writer's work that I enjoy or from films that I love. Feel free to comment on where those references come in, in case I do not point them out. For instance, there is one scene in this first chapter that is borrowed from JTZ29's story "Take Good Care of Her."

As for the chapter itself, the title says it all. This is only the exposition needed to get the story going, which I pretty much figured out as I wrote it. As such, I think it's pretty rambling and amateurish, but hopefully readers will enjoy it anyway.

With all of that said, lets get to reading!

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**Chapter 1: Exposition**

Deep within the Land of Fire there lives a village, a mighty village, a village hidden in the leaves. It's name…Konohagakure. Founded by the great shinobi Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, this mighty village, the most powerful and most highly regarded shinobi village of them all, now enjoys a well-earned time of peace and prosperity. Skyscrapers tower above the iconic Hokage Monument, technology had made advancements and been integrated in ways never seen before, and in the wake of a terrible war has come a new era of love and peace.

And it is all thanks to one man. One young ninja who rose from tragedy and rejection, from being labeled a monster by the very village he loves, to now become known throughout the ninja world not only as it's newest Hokage, but as the greatest hero of his generation.

His name…Naruto Uzumaki, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, apprentice of Kakashi Hatake and Lord Jiraiya, jinchūriki of Kurama, the nine-tailed fox spirit, hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War, and now the Seventh Hogake of the Konogakure. This young man has been a symbol of courage, perseverance and peace years before his reign ever began. It seemed as though everyone he encountered has been touched by his influence, and always for the better.

One of these individuals is Sakura Haruno, daughter of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno, apprentice of Kakashi Hatake and Lady Tsunade, heroine of the Fourth Shinobi World War, renowned as the greatest medical ninja in the world...and now the loving wife of Naruto Uzumaki. Yes, despite years of chasing after the former traitor Sasuke Uchiha, this woman would eventually open her eyes to the truth, that her affections were for the wrong man this whole time and that her true destiny lay with another. The young man who stood by her through all of her darkest turmoil, her worst moments, this lovable, stupid blonde knucklehead of a ninja was always there and would not hesitate to give his life for her if need be. In another life, she might have missed her chance to be by his side and who knows where she would have been then.

After the war, where Naruto at last fulfilled his promise to bring Sasuke back home to her, the last Uchiha would find himself leaving the village once again, this time to make amends for his many sins since he first betrayed his team, no, his family, to seek power from the snake Sannin Orochimaru. In all due respect Sasuke should have spent the rest of him life in prison for his many war crimes, the only things that spared him were the role he played in the war and the fact that Naruto vouched for him. Sakura had asked to join Sasuke on his quest, but he refused her. He told her that she needed to find her own path, to look into her heart and find what it was she _really_ wanted, as if telling her up front that her heart never really belonged to him. He had promised her, with a tap to her broad forehead, by now adorned with the Strength of a Hundred Seal, that he would return to her, but he did not say when. Sasuke would also part ways with his other teammate, the only brother he had left, Naruto, who returned his old Leaf Village headband as a reminder of their friendship, which Sasuke agreed to keep until they could one day "settle things" between the two of them. But he also gave his brother one more bit of advice, "Take good care of her." Naruto was shocked, maybe even a little embarrassed, but still no other words needed to be said. The Uchiha had given the blonde his blessing; he had stepped aside for both of them to find the happiness they both deserved. Sure, in another life maybe things could have gone another way, but at that Sasuke merely brushed it off. 'No,' he thought to himself, 'This is for the best. This is how it is meant to be.'

The next few months were an awkward time for the two teen heroes. Sure, the peace that was achieved was wonderful, their sensei Kakashi was selected as Lady Tsunade's successor as the Sixth Hokage (to which everyone was surprised at how maturely Naruto had accepted it). The Allied Shinobi Forces remained in tact and thrived, and as a result, recovery from the devastation of the last war healed much more rapidly and equal opportunity was given to all villages and any need for future conflict was eliminated. But that wasn't the end of it, many of their friends, even those among the fabled 'Konoha 11,' were finding themselves falling in love.

Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's oldest and closest friend, had confided in her that she was starting to form a crush of one of Naruto and Sakura's former teammates, the pale-faced Anbu and former Root member Sai. Sakura was dumbstruck to say the least, but ever the optimist, and likely as an apology for their years wasted on a rivalry of chasing after Sasuke, she decided to play matchmaker and set them both up on a blind date. Turns out, the date went very well; thank goodness Sai had gained a better understanding of human emotion by then. Now the purple-clad, platinum blonde florist, the confident girl that would flirt with every other guy that crossed her path, found herself in a happy and staple relationship, and it was all thanks to her best friend Sakura.

Shikamaru Nara, the first of the Konoha 11 to reach Chūnin status and easily the most brilliant strategist of their generation (even if he did have the laziness of a sloth), found himself dating Temari, the fan-wielding sister of one of Naruto's closest friends, Gaara, the former jinchūriki of the Shukaku, the one-tailed beast spirit, and currently the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure. When the two of them announced that they were dating, absolutely no one was surprised. It had been pretty obvious from the start that there was an attraction between them and that it was only a matter of time before something finally happened. Gaara and his brother Kankurō might have been concerned at first that their sister had taken an interest in a boy from another village, but since Shikamaru was such a close friend of Naruto's the Kazekage had no issue with it…Shikamaru always supposed that he owed Naruto a thank you for that, but thanking him in words would have been…troublesome.

But while Shikamaru's love life may not have surprised anyone, Chōji Akimichi, Ino and Shikamaru's former teammate, certainly did when he announced that he was seeing Karui, a kunoichi from Kumogakure, the village hidden in the Land of Lightning. None of their friends had any idea how that happened, but apparently they had met in the aftermath of the war and, after talking, really hit it off. It was an unexpected romance to say the least, but they do say that love surprises you.

In speaking of surprises, Rock Lee, the ever-energetic taijutsu master and obsessively devoted pupil of Might Guy, had learned to move on from his longstanding crush on Sakura. He never did say what his reason was, but as devoted and youthful as Lee was, he likely saw her relationship's with both of her teammates and recognized that he just didn't have a chance. Besides, after the tragic death of his teammate, former rival and dearest friend Neji Hyūga, Lee found himself becoming a source of strength for his other grieving teammate, Tenten. She had hidden unreciprocated feelings for the Hyūga, so when he gave his life to save both Naruto and his cousin Hinata, she was devastated. Lee was there to help her out however, and while nothing was made official yet, Tenten's friends had all started to notice her smiling in Lee's direction a lot more often lately…

But that brings us to Neji's beloved cousin, heir to the prestigious Hyūga clan, the kind and beautiful Lady Hinata. Every single person in the village was aware of her long, long-standing crush on the blonde-haired Hokage-to-be, except, naturally, for the blonde knucklehead himself. She had found the courage to confess her feelings to him during Pain's invasion of Konoha, but Naruto would not reciprocate those feelings for a while longer. After the war, after Neji died, Naruto had gotten to a point where he was becoming uncomfortable around Sakura; not because he stopped liking her, he just felt that, after finally bringing Sasuke back home, that he should try to move on and let her have what she wanted. So, he did indeed ask Hinata out for one date, which she quickly accepted. Their night was fun, but there was an unmistakable absence of joy at the heart of it. Hinata was a lot of things, but she has never been stupid; she was always aware of how Naruto felt about Sakura and how Sakura, even if she couldn't see it, felt about him. So when Hinata closed the night talking to Naruto about his feelings and Naruto said that he wanted to break his bonds with her, to move on and let Sakura live her life even if it was without him, Hinata did the unthinkable…she slapped him…_HARD_. This was not the Naruto she had fallen in love with. This was not the boy who never gave up on his dreams. This was not the boy who held an unbridled sense of optimism and joy and courage no matter how bleak the world got. This…this just wasn't Naruto. And if spending the rest of her life with him meant her having to see him live that lie for the rest of his life, then damn it, she'd much rather just let him go. Sure enough, that was just the motivation that Naruto needed, so after a very energetic hug of friendship to the Hyūga heiress, he recommitted himself to at least speaking with Sakura again; and ironically, when the two of them did eventually get together, Hinata herself was one of their happiest supporters…but she also had the support of her fellow teammate Kiba to thank for that…and Shino too, but for some reason people often tended to overlook him…

So Naruto had recommitted himself to getting the girl of his dreams, but what he had no idea about was that Sakura herself was having very similar issues. She constantly thought back to her days at the academy, her days with Team 7, the war, and everything in between. And the more she thought about it, the more she realized something, something important, something critical, something so terribly and ashamedly obvious that only an immature fan girl completely blinded by infatuation could fail to see it…Sasuke did not love her. He didn't love anyone. He was too blinded by revenge for too long for there to be room in his heart for such a thing as love. For goodness sake, the young man had actively tried to kill her at least three times in the past! What sane, self-respecting woman could love a man after that?!

But that wasn't all; she was also constantly thinking about her other teammate. The blonde idiot who always smiled at her and, in turn, would get her to smile as well. The boy who would stand by her side no matter what she said or did to him, all of which made her cringe with guilt now. The boy who she believed would never amount to anything in his ninja career, especially compared to the raven-haired Uchiha…She had never been so wrong about anything in her life! Naruto Uzumaki was the bravest, strongest, most selfless ninja, no, person, she had ever known. They'd both been through so much, shared so many emotions, had far more in common than she'd ever realized before…It was funny, back when they were kids she despised the hyperactive boy, and now she couldn't even imagine her life without him in it; well, scratch that, yes she could, but any time she imagined her life without Naruto it seemed really, really sad.

Inner conflicts were had, epiphanies made, and truths accepted. And the next time they crossed paths, something happened that changed both of their lives forever. There was no denying it any longer, from either of them. Sakura Haruno was in love with Naruto Uzumaki, and he with her…

…But that is a story for another time…

Their love was the purest, most passionate and beautiful that their friends and loved ones had ever seen. Once their feelings were out in the open, the two were virtually insuperable. Tsunade and Kakashi were both immensely proud of their students, knowing deep down that they were always meant to be. Sakura's parents were on cloud nine, especially her mother. She had never told her daughter this before, but Kushina had been one of Megumi's closest friends, and she knew that she would have been proud of the two of them finally coming together. Their friends were no less happy for them, even Hinata, but it was Kiba's rude response to their announcement that summed everything up, "Well it's about time you two!" Laughter and heavy blushing followed.

For about five years the two lovers stayed together, until, after a brief but successful five-year reign, Kakashi chose to step down from the Hokage position and, at last, chose Naruto, his greatest student, as his successor. The day of Naruto's inauguration saw the streets of Konoha packed to the brim with every shinobi and civilian in the village, as well as his closest friends from allied nations, all to see the ninja world's greatest hero fulfill his destiny. Naruto accepted their praise with pride, but not without some sense of irony given how ostracized was only a decade or so prior. The orange-clad Hokage gave the village a speech, one voicing his iconic enthusiasm, but also the extreme gratitude, dignity and authority of a true leader.

But that wasn't even the highlight of the evening. After he had been christened into his new job, Naruto made a brief speech to the village about his beloved Sakura, who was standing right next to him on the balcony. He thanked her for everything they had shared and called his year's with her the best of his entire life…And then, in front of a crowd of thousands, he got on one knee and took her hand. Then he pulled a small box out from his pocket and opened it, revealing a diamond ring that sparkled in the sunlight. Sakura, her hands clasped over her mouth and her eyes already in tears, could only stand there as the crowd gasped and Naruto asked the most important question of his life:

"Sakura Haruno, will you marry me?"

No words were spoken, none were needed, for instead her answer was to clam his lips with her own in the most passionate kiss of either of their lives. The entire village, friends, family, everyone, burst into applause at the newly engaged couple, the Seventh Hokage and the pink-haired medical-nin, the love of his life.

There was a party at their house that night, for by this time the two lovers had moved in together into an unused mansion that Naruto's parents had built. The home wasn't massive, but it was surely amazing. Three floors (not including the basement level), massive rooms and entryways, large dining room, fully-stocked pantry (and no, NOT entirely with ramen, Sakura made sure of that), a large library, entertainment room, an indoor dojo, spacious outdoor garden, large swimming pool, a hot tub, a bar, even a private hot spring; in other words, the ideal place to invite guests and to host parties for friends. All of the happy couple's friends were invited and everyone had the time of their lives, eating delicious food, getting drunk (except for Lee, Tenten made damn sure of that), swimming in the pool (Ino couldn't pass up any chance to show off her bikini body, even with Sai there and Naruto now engaged) and congratulating the happy couple. There was even a karaoke machine that night, where Naruto got up and sang a song to his fiancé. Now, until that night, the idea of Naruto singing would have sent shivers of horror down the spines of everybody there. But to everyone's shock, the blonde man wasn't gifted, but he was far, far better than they had all feared. But as good as his singing was, it was nothing compared to his dancing. Naruto performed a break dancing routine to his song that night that completely floored everybody, pulling off movements that even taijutsu masters like Lee and Guy would envy, including this one move that looked as if he was gliding backwards across the stage, as if gravity wasn't even influencing him, as if he were on the moon.

Sakura was overcome with emotion after Naruto's performance. They both disappeared from the party after it was over, retreating back to the master bedroom. They didn't come out again for the rest of the night…

Nine months later, the happiest day of their lives had come. Sakura, who had herself helped deliver countless babies into the world for other mothers, had at last given birth to her own first-born child, a son. His name: Shinachiku Uzumaki.

And this, at last, is where we begin our story…

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There you have it, my first chapter. This was my very first story so I hope you didn't think too badly of it; again, it is just an exposition piece. You probably noticed a lot of quick, not terribly detailed ideas here, especially in Naruto and Sakura's romance. Don't worry, I am planning on expanding upon the backstory in future chapters.

Feel free to comment and recommend ideas on where you think this story should go, I am open to any feedback I can get.

Once again, thank you all for reading, and I hope see you again in the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2--Dawn of a New Era

Hello, thesaiyanjedi here. Thank you all for the positive response to the first chapter of this story, especially spazzgirl, one of my favorite NaruSaku writers. Knowing that a writer like you has taken an interest in this work is a great source of pride for me.

I should let you all know two things up front. First, a lot of this I will be making up as I go; I have no pre-planned outline for this and the story will take shape as I write it.

Second, a lot of the ideas you will be seeing here are, admittedly, not my own. I will be taking references from other fanfiction and films that I enjoy and use them as inspiration for the story you are reading now. For example, in the first chapter, the parting exchange between Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto was directly inspired by one that JTZ29 wrote in her fanfic "Take Good Care of Her." I will absolutely be crediting all of my influences for each chapter, usually at the end, but feel free to try and pick them out if you can; heck, you can make a game out of it if you want, there's no telling which way this thing will go!

I really do hope that you guys continue to like and support this story, as it is my very first attempt at writing fanfiction myself, having read so much of it for so many years.

Oh yeah, and just to make sure that all of this is legal, Naruto is not my series, it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is merely an independent fan work and not intended as a copyright infringement of the creator or his affiliates.

With all of that said, on with the story!

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**Chapter 2: Dawn of a New Era**

"Great work today, Shinachiku. We'll pick this up again tomorrow."

A very young boy, about 12 years in age with bright blonde hair and emerald eyes, dressed in an orange jacket, black shorts, black armbands, and large black boots, the jacket adored with the symbol of the Hidden Whirlpool Village, which itself was encased within the plain white circle of the Haruno clan, stopped his shuriken training. It should be noted that nearly all of his targets had been Bull's eyed. The boy turned to his master, a tall, handsome young man with brown hair and a long blue scarf wrapped around his neck.

The boy bowed to his master with a large, goofy smile, "Arigato, Konohamaru-sensei."

Konohamaru could not help but chuckle at Shinachiku's endearment. Ever since he made Jōnin several years ago, he knew right away that he wanted this boy to be his student. It was only right; he himself was his father's first pupil, even if most of what the current Hokage had taught him were stupid, perverted jutsu that only worked on male shinobi that seriously needed to get laid. But that didn't matter, to Konohamaru, Naruto Uzumaki was the big brother that he never had, the one person who, as a child, didn't immediately treat him with the same overindulgence of respect that everyone else did; "Honorable Grandson" they called him, jeez. As a boy he was desperate not to be acknowledged that way, so he got it into his head that if he could just, one day, defeat his grandfather, the Third Hokage, in a surprise attack, it would somehow forge his own identity. Thank God Naruto was there to, quite literally, beat some sense into the brat. He didn't care whose grandson he was, disrespect like that should not be tolerated, especially to family.

Konohamaru was attracted to that attitude, so he pestered Naruto into taking him on as his student, not caring that the blonde had only graduated from the Academy and made Genin the day before. This was the beginning of a friendship that would define the rest of Konohamaru's life, for it was Naruto, his nii-chan, that taught him that there were no shortcuts to becoming Hokage, or to anything in life for that matter, only hard work and perseverance. He never got to become Naruto's official apprentice, Naruto was far too young to have a Genin squad of his own by the time Konohamaru graduated, but Naruto always saw the boy as his first true pupil, and he was always grateful for that…And Naruto could not have recommended anyone better to train his son.

Shinachiku Uzumaki was, like his sensei before him, the pride of the Hidden Leaf Village. The son of both the Hokage himself and the most renowned medic-nin of her generation, the boy had always been destined for greatness…Or at least he would have been if they were not living in times of peace. Don't get the wrong idea, peace was wonderful, there was no war, no suffering, and no death…but there was also no adventure. Young shinobi-in-training like Shinachiku, top of his class despite being a natural-born prankster (not to mention an amazing singer and dancer; it's no wonder so many girls at school were crushing on him), found themselves training in the sacred arts of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu, and yet had precious little opportunity to put those skills to use. But as Shinachiku's dad had told him when he was very young, "A wise Kage, or ninja, never goes looking for war, but he must always be ready for it."

And so the boy kept training, partly because of what his dad had told him that day, and also because of something else he said once, "My son, some day this village will say of you and I what they said about me and your grandpa. They will say 'My boy, some day you will be just like your dad, the bravest and strongest shinobi in the world.' And then one day then will all look again and say, 'No…He is greater than his father.'"

After the Genin finished bowing to his sensei, he hung his head in thought, and his teacher noticed it.

"What's the matter, Shina?"

"Sensei, do you think that all my training will ever pay off one day? I mean, _really_ pay off? I know we are living in peace right now and my dad says that a shinobi should always be ready for anything, but I just…I mean, escort missions for feudal lords pay good money and it's okay to help find a woman's lost cat now and again, but I can't help but wish something more exciting would happen around here. I know I'm being selfish, but whenever I talk with my mom, or Aunt Ino, or Aunt Hinata, or Uncle Sasuke whenever he's around, or whenever I read my dad's book, I feel like-"

The boy was stopped when his master knelt down and put his hand on his shoulder. He looked the boy square in the eye and gave him a heartfelt smile.

"Shinachiku Uzumaki, you are the son of two exceptional shinobi, one of whom was my idol, and he was the greatest ninja I've ever known. Believe me when I tell you that one day you are going to grow up to do great things…But only if you work hard for it. There are no shortcuts to being a great ninja, only hard work. Legacies and bloodlines are all great, but if your father proved anything growing up, it's that true greatness isn't given, it's earned."

The blonde-haired lad stared at his master in wonder. Then, he gave the Jōnin a warm hug. "Arigato, sensei."

"Any time kiddo. Now go on home, I'm sure your mother is going to want you back in time for dinner tonight."

"Actually, my mom told me that she got stuck with an extra long shift at the hospital. And dad's stuck in a meeting with the damn elders again-"

"Hey, watch your language young man!"

"Gomen, gomen. Anyway it's just going to be me and Hanami tonight."

"Really? Are you sure you two are going to be alright on your own?"

"It'll be fine. Both my parents are usually home, but once and a while these things happen. I'm a big kid now and I can take care of both of us until they get home."

"…Okay. Just try to stay out of trouble until your parents get home. And take care of your sister."

"Sensei, relax. What could possibly happen?"

* * *

At the Hokage Tower, a mid-thirties man with blonde hair and three fox-like whisker marks on each of his cheeks, garbed in orange and black, sat at his desk typing endlessly on his laptop computer. 'Thank God for technology,' he thought. 'It cuts the paperwork down at least by half!' On his desk were stacks of paperwork, most of which he was done with, thank goodness. But there was also a half-eaten cup of instant ramen with the chopsticks sitting inside it, and half-empty bottle of sake. Until the last twelve years this young man had prided himself on not being much of a drinker, but Baa-chan had warned him that taking this job meant that he would be hitting the bottle a lot more often than he used to. Still, he prided himself on moderation and usually favoring coffee or water instead.

But also on his desk were a series of framed photos. One was from years ago, when he had just been assigned to his three-man squad, the day that his life's story truly began.

The young man himself was only a boy back then; no older than his son was now. In the photo he stood to the right, dressed in a garish bright orange jumpsuit, his arms folded and an irritated expression on his face. Leaning in above them was the young man's former sensei, the Copy Ninja dressed in his green Jōnin vest and with that infamous blue mask covering the bottom half of his face, his Leaf Village headband covering his Sharingan eye. To the far left stood another boy, with raven-black hair and a blue shirt, an annoyed expression on his face. This boy was his former rival, his best friend, his brother. In between the two boys, at the bottom of the photo, was a pink haired angel, a girl that many others called an ugly duckling for her broad forehead, but the blonde never did. She had her eyes closed and her hands held up to her face in an adorable smile. She was his rock, his friend, his true love…and now, for twelve years, she had been his wife.

There was another photo on his desk as well. It was of just the two of them, days after the war ended, both of them now seventeen years old. It was the day after they first admitted their love for each other. She clung to his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, another content smile on her face as he placed a kiss to her forehead, now adorned with the diamond-shaped Strength of a Hundred Seal.

There was yet another photo, again of the two of them, this time from their wedding day…Well, their second wedding day. He tried not to think about the disaster that happened the first time they walked down the alter. But that didn't matter, because the second time had gone perfectly. There he was in a rich black tuxedo, her in a gorgeous white wedding gown, with her scooped up in his arms as they kissed with pure love and passion.

There was a fourth photo, this time of the two of them plus a third person, a baby with blonde hair like his father's and his mother's green eyes. The proud parents were smiling to the camera as their baby laughed an adorable giggle.

A fifth photo sat right next to it. In this one, the little boy was about five years old and full of excitement as his mother held another child in her arms, a girl with her pink hair and her father's blue eyes.

These pictures, his life story, were what really kept him going through work every day…Which is why he felt so bad that he had to leave the kids home alone tonight. Yes, he trusted his son to take care of himself and his sister, but what parent is proud of having to leave their kid's home alone? Hell, he was fully prepared to ask one of his friends to babysit, but Shinachiku insisted that he could handle it, and, hey, the kid was twelve for goodness sake!

'Still,' the blonde man thought, 'better breeze through all this so I can hurry home.'

And so, after checking to make sure he was alone in his office, the orange-clad Hokage made a familiar hand seal.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

A few puffs of smoke later and no less than three identical clones of himself appeared in the room, all of them knowing exactly what to do, all groaning as they split up the remaining paperwork evenly among themselves.

"That's cheating, y'know!"

The blonde Hokage nearly jumped out of his seat at the sound of that voice. He looked to the doorway and saw his pink-haired angel staring back at him in irritation.

"Sakura-chan, I can explain this!"

She crossed her arms. "I'm listening…"

"Well, I…I…I…I was just trying to get all this work done faster so I could come home to you and the kids, that all!"

Sakura maintained her irritated expression for about a second before it changed to one of her heartwarming smiles. "I know."

"Wait, what? What do you mean you know?"

"Come on sweetie, you pull this stunt all the time. How else could you have been there for the kid's birthdays every year? How else could you find time to join me for Christmas shopping each year? Hell, if you hadn't placed a clone in your spot for one of your boring Kage Summit meetings one time you would never have made it to Hanami's birth. As I recall the Raikage was pretty upset with the deception."

"And to this day I have no regrets about it. Nothing about this job is more important to me than you guys. You know that right?"

"Of course I do." She came up her husband and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Besides, it's not like that's the _only_ use you have for those shadow clones."

The blonde man gave a devious smirk equal to her own as he leaned in to claim her lips.

Their kiss lasted a solid ten seconds before a voice called out to them.

"Oh man, how troublesome! Get a room you two!"

The two lovers quickly separated and straightened out their clothes, blushes adorning both of their faces.

"Shikamaru, what do you want?" the annoyed Hokage asked.

Shikamaru Nara, Naruto's trusted adviser and one of his oldest friends, stood there in the doorway wearing his open white dress shirt and black undershirt and a goatee on his chin.

"I just wanted to tell you that the new budgets for the Academy and the hospital need your approval." He handed Naruto the clipboard as he spoke.

"Okay…" Naruto said as he read the proposal. "Fine, approve it."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yeah, what's the big deal?"

"Naruto, when's the last time you double-checked the village's budget reserves? We are running low on funds right now and this proposal will-"

"I understand your concern Shikamaru, and I assure you that I considering every possibility. But if I am forced to choose between approving funding for our village's defense during _peace time_ or to our schools and hospitals, then I'll choose schools and hospitals."

Sakura smiled with pride as Shikamaru just grinned. "Wow," he turned to Sakura. "I guess you really fucked some sense into this moron huh?"

"**WHAT?!"** Sakura screamed in embarrassment as she grabbed the lazy Nara by the collar, "What the hell are you implying by that?!"

"Hey, take it easy. I'm just saying that we all know how kinky you two can be when you're alone. I mean, you _did_ sneak off to your bedroom during your engagement party to have hours of loud, wild, passionate, kinky sex. I'd always heard that virgins could never keep it quiet, but _damn_! How could you two have forgotten to set up a silencing jutsu around your bedroom first? Everyone at the party could hear you two going at it like rabbits in there!"

Now both of them were fuming with embarrassment. It was true, during the five years they have been dating Naruto and Sakura had always found ways to relieve their sexual frustrations, especially after moving into his parent's mansion, but they both agreed that there would be no sex until they were married. Well…five years is a long time to wait, and after Naruto proposed to her in front of the whole village and after he sang that song to her at the party, neither of them could take the waiting anymore. They spent the entire night together, letting out all of their deepest desires, passions, and perversions during their first time…Which, thanks to Naruto's inhuman stamina, lasted a very, very, very long time for the pink-haired vixen. They were both so desperate for each other that it never once entered their minds that they forgot to put a silencing jutsu around the room and that their friends downstairs might hear them…But hear them they did, for Sakura proved to be very, err, vocal, during her first time. All of their friends, particularly the women, were either embarrassed, or turned on, or both, at what they were hearing; some of the couple's even got themselves some action of their own after they left the party. Some of their most perverted friends even tried to peak in on them, but unfortunately for them the two lovers _did_ at least remember to lock the bedroom door. The following morning both of them were on cloud nine when they woke up together, but as soon as they went outside everyone on the street was laughing at the newly-engaged couple, and when Ino spilled the beans on what happened, it was the single most embarrassing moment of Sakura's life…But curiously, it did send a lot of single women looking in Naruto's direction too.

Shikamaru turned to his Hokage with a sly smirk. "You know, a lot of the guys always wondered how come you never put _that_ scene in your book. You might have sold twice as many copies-"

"BECAUSE I SWORE THAT IF HE DID, HE'D **NEVER** BE ABLE TO HAVE KIDS AGAIN, **THAT'S WHY!**"

Shikamaru took the hint and left it at that. "Okay, whatever. Jeez, so troublesome. See you later lovebirds." He gave them a lazy wave as he left the room.

Sakura needed to calm down. She had negotiated with one of her coworkers to take over the remainder of her shift so she could go home early to see her husband and her kids, not to be reminded yet again of how public they had made their first time, the night their son was conceived (oh yeah, they forgot to use a contraceptive jutsu too!). Hell, Ino had blackmailed her too many times already for all the juicy details that weren't explained by all her moaning and yelling that night.

'God, I need a drink!'

She grabbed the bottle of sake off of Naruto's desk and drowned a few good chugs. Naruto just looked at her for a moment.

"What?! It's rude to stare at people y'know!"

"Nothing. It's just…"

"Just what?!"

"It just that, with that famous temper of yours, and the way you say y'know…For a second there…" He couldn't finish the sentence for a moment.

"What?!" Sakura was really getting impatient now.

"You…you reminded me of my mother." Naruto blushed at this confession.

All of the irritation Sakura had before vanished the moment she heard this. Sakura had never gotten the chance to meet Kushina, but after she and Naruto started dating, her mother told her stories about their rivalry turned friendship and about how much they both had in common. She'd even said that the two of them would talk after Sakura was born about how cool it would be if their kids got together. Then when Naruto's book came out she read the story about her and Minato, and about what really happened the night Naruto was born. It was a story of hardship, loneliness, being strong in the face of bullies (something Sakura greatly respected), and true love, becoming a mother, tragedy, and legacy from mother to son all in one story. I was the most beautiful, romantic, and saddest thing she had ever read and she found herself in tears by the end of it, and nearly everyone who reviewed the book felt the same way. Never before had Sakura held so much respect for someone she'd never met.

"I wish I'd known her."

Naruto took her into his arms. "Hey, my mom would have loved you." He leaned in to kiss his wife once more time. "My clones should be just about done with the paperwork by now, so why don't you and I just get the hell out of here?"

Sakura smiled and gave once more peck on the lips. "As you command, Hokage-sama."

* * *

Shinachiku made it back home to his house within minutes of finishing his training with Konohamaru-sensei, and he pulled out the key to his house and opened the door.

"Hey, I'm home!"

There was no response for a few moments, but then there was a loud cry of happiness.

"Onii-chan!"

A seven-year old girl with pink hair and eyes as blue as sapphire, wearing a small red jacket over a bright yellow dress, ran out into the main hall of the Uzumaki house and practically teleported into her brother's arms.

"I've missed you Shina-chan!"

"I missed you too Hanami." He hugged her back, but he also couldn't help but think to himself 'Wow, really, she saw me just this morning.'

Hanami Uzumaki was the second child of Naruto and Sakura. When their friends all saw her they thought she was the most adorable baby girl ever (save for their own kids, of course). But when she was born, Shinachiku's father told him that he was going to have to take some major responsibility from now on to help keep her safe, like any big brother should. It was a responsibility that he took to with total seriousness, as he had occasionally got sent to detention while at the Academy for beating up on kids who bullied her at school.

Hanami herself was the pride and joy of her family. She loved her father, who would always shower her with love and, frankly, spoil her rotten with all the candy, toys and, yes, ramen that she wanted. She loved her mother, so pretty and smart and strong, the kind of woman she wanted to grow up to be like, whether she wanted to be a medical ninja or not. But her brother, she adored him. He was always there, keeping her safe, watching out for her, keeping her company on those rare nights when mom and dad were both swamped with work and both had to come home late. He would always find ways to make her laugh and smile, and some times, when she was really down, he would go so far as to sing to her. That was how the family first found out about his beautiful singing voice, and, coupled with the break dancing moves his father taught him, helped make him even more popular with the girls at the Academy than he already was…Which for some reason always made Hanami jealous whenever other girls spoke to him.

Shinachiku broke up the hug. "Hey sis, mom and dad are going to be running late tonight, so it's just you and me for dinner tonight."

"But Shina-chan, mommy didn't leave anything out for dinner. And neither of us are allowed to use the stove."

Shinachiku got a mischievous grin on his face. "Well, you know what that means don't you?"

Hanami got that same grin on her own face. "Yep!"

"ICHIRAKU RAMEN!" they both shouted with glee.

After the war, as their father became world famous, so too did his favorite place to eat. Old Man Teuchi and his daughter Ayame found themselves attracting more customers than ever thanks to the enthusiastic free press of their number one customer. Business got so good not only did the restaurant end up expanding from a simple bar to a full-sized restaurant (which did offer up more varieties of food than just their house special), but Ayame was able to convince her father to sell the family recipe for home consumption. So now, not only could you order Ichiraku's delicious noodles to go, but you could buy them in stores as well. Naruto wasn't terribly fond of this idea, as frozen stuff was never as good as the real thing, but still, it did serve to fill the void in his stomach when his job just didn't allow him the time to get out and go there in person.

Within minutes, the Uzumaki siblings were sitting at the family dinner table happily slurping up their dinner…When all of a sudden, the doorbell rang.

"Huh?" Shinachiku said. "Maybe mom and dad got off work early tonight. Hanabi, you wait here for a minute."

The boy got up from the table and walked to the front door. He opened it expecting to see his parents there, but what he saw instead was a stranger…or at least he thought he was.

This person was a tall man in his mid-thirties with moppy raven-black hair, who wore a black poncho over his obviously well-armed ninja gear. His face looked sullen and a bit cold, but there was something oddly familiar about this stranger.

Either way, being the Hokage's son meant you had to be sure to use good manners.

"Good evening," the boy said as he bowed.

"Whatever do you mean by that? Do you mean to wish me a good evening or do you mean that it is a good evening whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say that _you_ feel good on this particular evening? Or are you simply stating that this is an evening to be good on?"

Shinachiku was at a loss for words at all this, so he answered, "All of them at once, I guess." The stranger merely grumbled at this.

"Excuse me sir, but can I help you?"

"That remains to be seen. Are your parent's home?"

"No, my mom and dad are working late tonight." The boy was now getting nervous, really wishing that he had a spare kunai on his person just in case. "Why do you ask? Are you looking for them?"

"No. Actually kid, _you're_ the one I was really looking for."

"Excuse me?"

"You don't have any idea who I am, do you kid? I know I've been gone for a while, but for you to have forgotten my face completely-"

"I'm sorry sir and I hate to be rude, but I don't think I know who you are, and I think I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Good evening." Shinachiku really didn't like to be rude to anyone that visited their house, but something was really off about this man. But as he was about to close the door…

"To think that I would be so young and still have to stand her to be 'Good evening'ed' by Naruto and Sakura son, my own godson, as if I well selling buttons at the door!"

Shinachiku stopped dead in his tracks and couldn't resist opening the door again. "I beg your pardon?"

"Only twelve years old and already you've changed since last we met, and I'm not entirely sure it was for the better, Shinachiku Uzumaki."

"Excuse me sir, but do I know you?"

"Well you know my name, even though you apparently don't remember I belong to it. I am you mom and dad's closest friend and teammate. I am the last survivor of the Uchiha clan. I'm your Uncle Sasuke…and I am looking for someone who wants to share in an adventure."

* * *

Well, there was the first official chapter of this story. I hope it wasn't too boring for all of you. As I said before, I will be borrowing a lot of influences from films and other stories that I enjoy, and the ending, in case you haven't guessed, was an homage to Bilbo's first meeting with Gandalf in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Shinachiku and Hanabi are both characters that exist within the NaruSaku fan community and I felt the need to include both of them in this story. I will be delving more into Naruto's book in later chapters, but the idea is that Naruto decided to to share his life's story with the rest of the world and what he ended up writing was not merely a autobiography but, essentially, the "Lord of the Rings" of the ninja world. Konohamaru's role as Shinachiku's sensei was something I always assumed would happen if Naruto and Sakura ever had kids; heck, even in the canon ending, I wouldn't be surprised if Kishimoto makes him Bolt's sensei as well. You may also be wondering who Shina's teammates are…Well, I haven't decided yet, and I am open to reader's suggestions. Sakura's admiration for Kushina was another thing I always wanted to see, and the connection between her and Sakura's mom, Mebuki, was directly inspired by an unfinished doujinshi by the brilliantly talented LadyGT; you can find it on her tumblr page. Well, I think that about does it for the references. Until next time, cheers!


	3. Chapter 3--An Unexpected Reunion

Hello again! Thank you for all of the favorites and alert subscriptions I've gotten so far. It really humbles me how many are already taking a liking to this story.

Any way, this chapter won't have as much action going on and probably be a lot shorter, as I was kind of crunched for time when I wrote it. But I hope you enjoy it anyway, as we'll be getting a better idea of what is really going on next time.

I should mention that there were two more references that I forgot to acknowledge from the previous chapter. At the beginning, when Naruto gives advice to his son about how a Hogake must always be ready for war even if he wants to avoid it, that was a direct reference to a scene from the first "Thor" movie, when Odin gives the exact same lesson to the young Thor and Loki. Also, the elaborate speech about how one day Shinachiku will surpass his father was lifted from a similar scene from "The Iliad," where the Trojan Hector removes his helmet and tells the same thing to his infant son.

Anyway, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 3: An Unexpected Reunion**

"You…You're Uncle Sasuke?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

Shinachiku was at a loss for words. "I-I'm sorry, I just haven't seen you since I was a kid."

"You still are a kid."

"A _little_ kid."

The Uchiha grinned. "It's okay Shina. It's great to see you again."

"Hold on a minute, how do I _know_ you're really my godfather and not just some rogue ninja using a transformation jutsu? Tell me something about my parents that only he would know."

"Very good, following your shinobi instincts, I like that." Sasuke thought for just a moment. "To answer your question…Did your father ever tell you that by accident I became his…" the black haired ninja cringed in shame at this memory. "…That I was his…his first kiss?"

The boy could only stare blankly at the tall man for a moment. "Okay, I believe you."

"Really, just like that?"

"Yeah, my dad never put that in his book, but the Uncle Sasuke I know would _never_ make up something like that unless it was true."

"…Thanks…I guess."

At this point the boy put on a warm smile. "Its good to have you home Uncle Sasuke."

"It's good to be home kid."

Shinachiku was tempted to give his godfather a warm hug, but even now there was something not totally comfortable about the situation. So instead he settled for extending his hand. Unfortunately, he had put out his left hand and only then remembered that Sasuke had lost his left arm at the end of the war. After an awkward realization, the boy quickly pulled out his right hand instead, to which Sasuke was able to shake with his only remaining hand.

"So…can I come in now, or are there any more proof of identity questions I have to pass first?"

"Oh right, sorry. Come in, come in." The boy then called out to inside the house.

"Hanami, please come here! We've got a visitor!"

The pink haired girl came into the front room and her face lit up at the sight of their guest.

"Uncle Sasuke!" The girl leapt at her godfather who embraced her in a one armed hug.

"Well, its good to see that at least _one_ of you kids remembers me." Shinachiku blushed and pouted at that remark, but then he remembered something.

"Hey, Uncle Sasuke, what did you mean when you said something about an adventure?"

The Uchiha merely smirked. "Let's go inside kid, I'll tell you all about it."

* * *

The Orange Hokage and his pink-haired wife strolled down the streets of Konoha toward their home, arms interlocked and her head on his shoulder. The woman was humming to herself as she did this.

"Uh, Sakura?"

"Sorry, I just-It feels nice for us to just be walking like this. I feel so safe and comfortable with you, just like when-"

"Like when we first started dating." Naruto didn't need to wait for her to finish her sentence.

"Yeah." She pecked her husband on the cheek. "And at least now I don't have to worry about beating girls off of you with a stick."

"No, I'm pretty sure that monster strength of yours would be more than good enough-"

Naruto had to stop that thought as he was knocked on the head by his wife. "Damn it Naruto, why did you have to ruin the moment by saying something like that?!"

"Gomen, gomen! I meant it as a compliment, I swear!"

Sakura folding her arms, "You darn well better have!" But then the women turned back and saw her soul mate rubbing the newly formed bump on his head. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry about that! I guess my temper got carried away again."

Naruto merely brushed it off with one of his signature goofy grins and lighthearted chuckles. "Hey don't 'fret, I got used to your temper a _long_ time ago."

This made Sakura feel even guiltier. "I don't deserve someone like you-"

"Hey! Don't you start that again! I've told that you deserve all the happiness in the world and that _I'm_ the lucky one here. You're smart, strong, beautiful, assertive, speak your mind, you're everything I've ever wanted in a woman. I don't think I could stand being married to someone who just stayed quiet and shy and never let her anger out at her husband. Marriage is a two-way thing and any relationship where the man and the woman don't stand on equal ground is no way to live a life, or raise a family."

"Wow…That was surprisingly profound of you Naruto. I guess twelve years in the Hokage's chair really has given you a lot more wisdom."

"It wasn't the chair honey, I just grew up that's all."

Sakura pulled her husband into a warm hug. "Yeah, you really have. You've grown into the strongest, selfless, most wonderful man I've ever known." She ended her praise by claiming his lips in a soft but passionate kiss, which he returned without complaint.

"Come on; let's hurry home so we can check in on the kids."

The Hokage smiled again. "Sure, they're both probably bored to death by now."

* * *

By the time the couple finally made it back to their house, they noticed some commotion coming from inside their luxury mansion.

"Well, the kids sure sound like they're having fun," Sakura said.

"Yeah, I bet they both raided the ramen cupboard again!"

"I warned you about feeding them that stuff when they were too young. I'm a doctor, and kids their age need to have a fully-developed diet comprised of all four food groups."

"I'll have you know that ramen consists of all the essential food groups in one. The noodles represent wheat and grain, you can chop vegetables into it like green onions, and boiled eggs can go into it, sliced pork, fruits…well I can't think of any fruit you can put into it, but kids needs plenty of water, and the broth is obviously-" By this point Naruto had to stop because he saw his wife scolding at him again. "I've got no chance of winning this argument, do I?"

"No, but it was an amusing effort. Just open the door."

Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to their house and opened the door. When they stepped inside they called out to their kids. "Shinachiku? Hanami? We're home!"

"DADDY!"

The young pink-haired girl ran into her father's arms for a huge hug.

"You sure are in a good mood tonight sweetie. Are you and your brother getting along?"

"Yeah, we're having a lot of fun now that Uncle Sasuke is back!"

"Wha-What?!" That incredulous reaction came from the _other_ parent in the room.

"Yes mommy, Uncle Sasuke is here right now! Come on!"

She grabbed her mother by the hand and led her into the dining room, her father following close behind. There they saw their twelve year old son sitting at the dinner table finishing his second cup of instant ramen for the night while looking at a batch of weird paperwork set on the table by a tall, black haired man in a black poncho.

There was an instant silence in the room as the three adults all laid eyes on each other for the first time in years. It was as if time itself had come to a complete standstill. The room was so quiet that you could literally drop a pin on the tile floor and everyone would hear it. Both of the kids suddenly got very nervous; Hanami never liked it when people argued, especially her family, and while Shinachiku had never seen it in person, he had read his dad's book so many times that he was well aware of the bad blood that used to exist between the two adult men, not to mention the, err, complicated romantic triangle they used to share with his mom. The poor boy was dreading what may or may not come of this unexpected reunion.

What felt like hours was really about ten seconds as, finally, their unexpected visitor stood up from the table and addressed the masters of the house.

"Naruto. Sakura." The Uchiha addressed them both, but he did not feel the need to bow, even if he was in the Hokage's own house.

"Sasuke." The Hokage addressed his one-time best friend and teammate, but he did not bow either. His wife just stood there, not saying anything.

Both men approached each other until they were only a few feet apart. They each stared the other down for a few tense seconds, as if either one of them could pull a hidden kunai on the other at any moment…

…And then they each got a grin on their faces, a smug one from the Uchiha and a large, goofy one from the Uzumaki. Those grins transcended into chuckling, then full blown laughter. All the tension was sucked out of the room as the two men dropped their tough guy act and laughed, and Shinachiku released a deep breath that he did not even realize that he was holding.

"It so good to see you Sasuke! It's been way too long!"

"Too long old friend."

The two men shook hands, until Naruto couldn't resist pulling his brother into a manly hug, which Sasuke awkwardly accepted…briefly.

"You did learn a long time ago that a ninja is supposed to keep his emotions in check, right…_Especially_ around other men."

"Yeah, but last time I checked emotions were also what made us all human."

"Touché, dobe."

Sasuke then noticed his other former teammate in the room. She could only stand there blankly for a moment, until the Uchiha put on yet another of his smug smirks. "What, I don't get a hug from you too?"

Sakura broke out of her surprise with a healthy giggle as she wrapped her old teammate in a warm hug. Naruto watched this and, unlike when they were kids, he had no reason to feel any jealousy at this scene. She was his now, they wore the rings to prove that. This was just welcoming home a lost part of the family…Wait a minute, _family_?

"Um…hey Sasuke, where are Karin and Sarada?"

Sasuke broke up the hug with Sakura to turn to the blonde; he clearly had a rare look of discomfort on his face.

"Naruto…Sakura…can I discuss something with you both…in private?"

Naruto got suspicious, but went along with it anyway. "Sure. Shina, could you please go take your sister and go up to your rooms for a little while. Uncle Sasuke and I need to have a talk."

"Okay dad." The boy did as he was told and took his sister with him upstairs. But he had a hopeful smile on his face.

'Please, _please_ let them say yes!'

* * *

Well, there you have it! What were Sasuke and Shinkachiku talking about that has the boy so excited? What will his parents say? Why does Sasuke even need Shinachiku in the first place? And is there more to this mystery adventure than either father or son are allowed to know? You'll just have to come back next time to find out. Until then feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts. Until next time!


	4. Chapter 4--The Quest for the Chakra Gems

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi here, back with another chapter.

I know it's been a few days since I last updated, but I found myself caught up in work the last few days and I needed to take extra time to work out the details for this chapter. This is where the plot really needed to be set in motion so, since I admittedly did not have a plan outlined when I started this, I had to decide for myself what I wanted to do as I went along. As such, I am a bit worried that some of the ideas I am presenting here might be a bit lame, or maybe there are some bits of information in the Naruto canon that I either overlooked of forgot about as I tried to work this into the canon universe that Kishimoto wrote.

Also, I apologize for any spelling errors that might slip by into the finished chapter; I swear I'm not a bad writer, I'm just not the best editor, and by the time I finally get done writing something, I am often too tired to do a thorough spell-check for errors my Word processor might have missed.

Lastly, I like to make an acknowledgement to Hanmac for his review of my last chapter. You said that you preferred the spelling of "Sarada" instead of "Salada," and thinking it over, I agree with you. I have actually seen in spelled both ways since the final two chapters came out, and I went with the latter because the pun was more obvious so I assumed that that was the correct spelling of her name. Looking it up on Narutopedia (after I got over the sting of having to read the canon listing of who her parents are), I found her true name to be "Sarada," thus I will be using that spelling for the rest of this story because, while I know that this is not the case in official canon, I, like many NaruSaku fans, feel that she bears a much closer resemblance to Karin than she does Sakura.

But in speaking of Sarada, I'm not against forming a bond between her and Shinachiku, but if Karin is her mother, and Karin is from the Uzumaki clan (most likely a cousin of Naruto's), doesn't that count as incest? No, really, I'm not clear on this, or exactly how closely related Naruto and Karin are supposed to be. Then again as I understand it the Hyūga and Uchiha clans married within their clans as well (again, I _think_ that is the case, _please_ correct me if I am wrong).

Well, I think that that is all I've got to say, except once again that you all for your support and your patience and I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Quest for the Chakra Gems**

"You want my son for _WHAT?!_"

Sakura didn't know what to expect when Naruto agreed to talk with Sasuke after his unexpected visit, but this was certainly the last thing she could ever have guessed.

"I said that I want to take Shinachiku with me on an adventure."

"What _kind_ of adventure?" Naruto asked with great suspicion.

"Well, I was just about to explain it to you before your wife had a panic attack and interrupted me." The Uchiha turned back to the pink haired woman. "Funny, I thought Naruto was supposed to be the one who acts without thinking, when did the roles reverse themselves?"

Sakura folded her arms. "They haven't, but then again _he_ became Hokage and _I_ became that boy's mother, so you'd better start explaining things."

Sasuke smirked, "Very well." He pulled out a map of the ninja world and some ancient scrolls. "When I left the village again after the war I did so to find ways to make amends for my crimes, and I especially wanted to make things up to the two of you. I made contacts throughout the shinobi nations to serve as a sort-of spy network to monitor for any hints of malicious machinations or Atkatsuki-level missing-nin activity."

"Like Pervy Sage," Naruto remembered fondly.

"Pretty much. Anyway, a few months ago, one of my contacts reported about rumors spreading across the Lightning Country about a rogue ninja sect, one who are on a manhunt for an all-powerful weapon, one that can single-handedly destroy an entire village, killing millions of people all at once."

"That's impossible," Sakura said incredulously.

"Is it? When Pain invaded this very village he was able to use a jutsu to literally crush everything you love, only Naruto's intervention stopping him. Hell, jinchūriki themselves have been considered living weapons for years by many, myself included, until, again, our blonde knucklehead here helped teach the world the see things differently. Who's to say there isn't yet another force out there, an item made by human hand, capable of similar chaos?"

Naruto took all of this in. "Okay, so what kind of weapon is this exactly?"

"A jewel, one of seven. According to these ancient scrolls I have discovered, these seven jewels each contain an incredible chakra that allows each to use a different, incredible power, and when brought together, they could either destroy whoever carries them, or give them the power of a god. Myth has it that they were created by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself."

Naruto and Sakura both sat up in alarm at that name. Kaguya was the greatest challenge any of them had ever faced. A goddess who possessed chakra unlike any the world had known. To this day, how the three of them together were ever able to defeat her is nothing short of a miracle.

"That doesn't make sense," Sakura noted. "Kaguya was a zealot after she ate the Shinju fruit. She believed that all chakra was her's and her's alone. Why would she put any of it into jewels for others to find and use?"

"I admit that it doesn't make much sense to my either, except perhaps that she intended them each as weapons to be shared amongst her two son's, Hagoromo and Hamura, if they should ever need them. After she realized that both of her son's inherited her chakra and she lost her trust in humanity, she eventually went mad and not only devised the Infinite Tsukuyomi to trap her enemies and turn them into White Zetsus, but she fused with the Shinju becoming the Ten-Tails, forcing her son's to separate and absorb her chakra, Hagoromo becoming the first jinchūriki in the process, and sealing her body within the moon, then dividing her chakra into the form of the tailed beasts. The jewels however, were left behind, probably overlooked by history in the wake of everything else that happened. But the two brothers knew better so, fearful of the power that was contained within them, especially if they were ever to be brought together, they chose to scatter the jewels to the far corners of the world, buried deep where no one would ever find them. They named them the 'Chakra Gems.'"

"Catchy," Naruto said sarcastically.

"Hey, you got a better name for them?" Naruto said nothing; "Didn't think so."

But now Sakura needed to interject. "But how come we are only finding out about this now? The Sage of Six Paths spoke to both of you and never once did he say anything about these 'Chakra Gems' or whatever they are."

"He probably didn't feel it was relevant. As incredibly powerful as the Chakra Gems are they had nothing to do with Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan or with Kaguya's resurrection."

Naruto, who had been going over Sasuke's scrolls himself all throughout his description, had some questions of his own.

"So basically what you're saying is that we need to recover these Chakra Gems before this new enemy force does, is that right?"

"Basically, yes."

"Who is this new enemy exactly?"

Sasuke zoned out at that latest question. He did not want to divulge this part to the happy couple for reasons that were entirely his own. He could still remember it clearly even today…

* * *

…It is twelve years before the present day and Naruto Uzumaki, recently appointed Seventh Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, is about to fulfill the second of his two greatest dreams. He is about to get married to the love of his life. For twenty-two years he has dreamed of this moment, and the five years they had been together had been the happiest of his entire life. He has Sakura's love, he has his dream job, he has his best friend back, and he has the love and admiration of the village that had once deemed him a monster. But best of all, in just a few months he is going to be a father!

Yes, after the long and passion-filled night they shared the day he proposed to her, Sakura had become pregnant with Naruto's child. When Tsunade first told Sakura the news she was terrified, not for herself, but for what Naruto was going to say. He had just proposed marriage to her and taken the Hokage position weeks before; their lives were already changing so fast. Was this really the best time to burden him with news of a baby?

Well, Sakura did not have to worry about anything. When Naruto got back from work one day Sakura was waiting for him. She sat her fiancé down on their master bed and took his hand in hers. He was confused about what was going on at first, until she just came out and told him the truth.

"_Wha…A-a baby?"_

"_Yep. I'm…" Sakura suddenly got this smile filled with feminine pride, as if a great truth had suddenly washed over her. "I'm gonna be a mother, y'know!"_

_Naruto was still left dumbstruck. "And I'm…I'm gonna be a father…"_

"_I'm gonna be a mother, y'know!"_

_A goofy grin started to form on the blonde man's face. "And I'm gonna be a father."_

"_I'm gonna be a mother, you know!"_

"_And I'm gonna be a father! Oh my God, Sakura, this the best thing that's ever happened to me!"_

"_Is it really?"_

"_Yes, you, our child, this life…It's everything I ever wanted." Naruto couldn't resist anymore and embraced his wife in a huge hug. "I love you so much Sakura!"_

"_I love you too Naruto, so, so much!" Tears of pure joy were now poring down the woman's face as they shared a loving kiss; all the while Naruto placed his hand on her stomach, thanking the heavens for finally giving him a family…_

That was one of the two happiest moments of Naruto's life, right up there with when Sakura agreed to marry him. In short, Naruto at last had everything he ever wanted…Well, _almost_ everything.

"Mom…Dad…Third…Pervy Sage…Neji…I wish you guys could have been here to see this." Naruto said this aloud, not caring that there was no one else in the room to hear him. Besides, the loved ones he was referring to likely were able to hear him anyway, in a better place.

Naruto was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal his former team mate and best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, dressed in a sleek black tuxedo. "Hey dobe, you do know what time it is, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm almost done!" Naruto was in his own tuxedo, but the poor fool just couldn't fix one little problem. "Hey Sasuke, could you give me a hand here? I can't get this stupid tie on."

"You're joking right? The Hokage of our village, hero of the entire world and you can't even put on a tie by yourself?" Annoyed silence was his response. "Fine, let me look at it."

As Sasuke went to work on his best friend's tie, he had a few other things he needed to say. "Listen dobe, you practically begged on your hands and knees for me to come back home long enough to be your best man, and if I'm going to be here for this, then I'll be damned if I'm going to let the only brother I have left be late for his own wedding."

"And I appreciate that, I really do." Naruto turned back to a mirror in the room to look at his best man's handiwork. "Thanks, it looks great…Wait a minute, how were you able to do that with only one arm?!"

"I have my ways."

"…Okaaayyy. Anyway, I guess we better get going to the church now. I can't keep my lady waiting!" Naruto said that last part with the same goofy enthusiasm that he had at twelve years old.

"Still as annoyingly happy as ever," Sasuke groaned. "By the way, what's this rumor I'm hearing about _you_ wanting to write a book?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it, still haven't decided about it though. Kids keep coming up to me wanting to know about my adventures, I mean _all_ of them. You save the world a few times and suddenly the whole world wants to know every detail about you life."

"It's called being a celebrity."

"Yeah, well, I love all of the attention, don't get me wrong, but they keep asking me so many times that it's honestly starting to get annoying. I figure maybe if I just put it all down on paper, I could cut that down a little bit. That and-" Naruto stopped himself, not sure if he should finish his next sentence.

"What?"

"Well, it's what I think Pervy Sage would have done. He was an author too. You ever read _The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi_?"

"The only books by Master Jiraiya I've ever heard of involved erotica, fetishes and all manner of things that grown men like you and Kakashi-sensei mastur-"

"What I _mean_ is that, _before_ he did any of that, Pervy Sage wrote this book about a ninja who never gives up and vows to break a curse, a vicious cycle of war, conflict and hatred that infects the whole world. It wasn't a big hit, but, well, my parent's named me after the main character in that book." Sasuke raised an eyebrow in curiosity at this part. "I guess I kind of want to follow in his footsteps in some way, that's all. You think anyone would want to read it?"

"I suppose _some_ people might enjoy it, but don't expect a whole lot of rave reviews and overnight success or anything. Just promise me one thing: if you do write it, try to go easy on me, okay? I already have an enormous self-inflicted bad rep I'm fighting to fix every day; I don't need your published life's story making it any worse!"

"I'll try my best, but the truth is the truth. Now come on, let's go!"

* * *

The halls of the Konoha Cathedral were filled to bursting with friends, family and well-wishers from all the Allied Shinobi Nations. Even major foreign dignitaries, like Gaara of Sunagakure, who went against some of his advisers and left his village to come all the way out here just to see his closest friend get married…Besides, it gave him an excuse to see his sister again, after she had recently moved here to start a relationship with the Hokage's newly appointed adviser, Shikamaru Nara.

In addition to Gaara and his brother Kankurō, Darui, Raikage of Kumogakure was there along with his bodyguard Omoi, as were Chōjūrō, Mizukage of Kirigakure and his bodyguard, and Kurotsuchi, Tsuchikage of Iwagakure along with her escort Akatsuchi. Their predecessors were all there as well, A, Mei Terumī, and Ōnoki, respectively. A, of course, brought his brother Killer B with him as well. But most important of all, both of Naruto and Sakura's successors, Lady Tsunade and their former sensei, Kakashi Hatake, were among the most important guests there, both of them proud beyond words to see both of their student's finally come together.

All of Naruto and Sakura's closest friends were there. In fact, several of them were involved in the ceremony itself. Shikamaru and Kiba were serving as groomsman, with Sasuke as the best man. Hinata and Tenten were serving as bridesmaids, with Ino as the maid of honor. Sakura was initially hesitant to ask Hinata to be involved, fearing how incredibly awkward it would surely be for her, but to her surprise the Hyūga heiress insisted on it, saying that today was all about her and Naruto's future, not about whatever lingering feelings she may or may not have for the Hokage. The rest of their friends, Chōji, Shino, Lee and Sai were all there as front row guests, as were Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and even Naruto's distant cousin Karin; and all of their friends, whether they were on stage or not, invited their respective clans to this event. Their Jōnin sensei's were all there as well, including Kurenai Yūhi and her daughter Mirai Sarutobi, and the ever youthful Might Guy, now tragically retired and bound to a wheelchair due to an injury sustained during the war. And of course, Iruka Umino was right there in the front row to support his favorite student on his big day. Even some of their civilian friends encountered during their adventures, such as Inari and his family were there.

Naruto was about to sweat bullets when the organ began playing and the large double doors opened up. 'Here Comes the Bride' bellowed through the halls as Kizashi Haruno escorted an angel down the hallway. This angel was wearing an absolutely stunning white gown. Naruto was rendered speechless as she approached the end of the hallway, Kizashi having some very brief words with his future son-in-law.

"Take good care of her kiddo."

"I promise I will…dad."

With that the father of the bride took his seat next to his already crying wife, Mebuki.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to bear witness to the union of this man and this woman in the bonds of holy matrimony…" The priest went on his usual prepared speech and, with all due respect to him, the two lovers were hardly paying attention, both of them far too caught up in each other, until the time came for them to exchange their vows. Once that was done, it was time for the grand finale.

Naruto Uzumaki, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

Naruto smiled happily, "I do."

"Sakura Haruno, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?"

Sakura was on the verge of crying tears of joy as she said, "I do."

"If there be any person here who has any reason why these two should not be wed, let them speak now or forever hold their peace…"

…And that's when they saw it. Out of the back of the crowd a stranger garbed in black, including a black mask covering the lower half of his face, came out with a large kunai hidden on his person where even the Anbu could not find it, and threw the weapon with incredible skill at the bride!

Naruto, sensing the danger immediately, acted instinctively and used his father's signature technique, the Flying Thunder God, to teleport him and his bride to the other end of the cathedral. As Hokage he needed to be prepared for anything, and so thank goodness he went ahead and planted a hidden Flying Thunder God kunai just in case something where to happen. Sakura could hardly register any if it though, she was still too dazed from the sudden turn of events to even process everything yet, save for an ever growing feeling of sadness and heartbreak.

The assassin was in the midst of making his escape and was proving to be an incredibly gifted combatant. Like Lee and Guy, he had no apparent ninjutsu or genjutsu, so he relied on taijutsu alone, and he was giving even Lee a damn good run for his money. The assassin fought off him and most of the Konoha 11, none of whom were pulling punches or had any interest in playing fair at the moment.

Actually, the most bizarre thing about this attack was that, while the assassin was not using any ninjutsu or genjutsu himself, none of the techniques that the shinobi used were having any effect. Shikamaru used his Shadow Imitation Technique to restrain the assassin, but Shikamaru's shadow literally repelled itself before it made contact with the enemy's shadow, much to the Nara's astonishment. Ino attempted her Mind Body Disturbance Technique to render the enemy a vegetable, but something was shielding his mind from mental attack. All of Shino's insects were retreating from the assassin when they arrived within meters of him. Sai unleashed his Super Beast Imitation Drawing Technique, but the ink creatures were turned to globs of black putty when they came within the assassin's presence. Chōji attempted his Human Bullet Technique, but again he was repelled away as if the assassin was protected by some sort of invisible shield. Hinata pulled out all the stops by unleashing her Gentle Step Twin Lions Fists, but even that was having little effect; she found herself better off relying on her usual Gentle Fist fighting style, but the assassin's amazing agility was formidable. Kiba was having a bit of luck as his and Akamaru's techniques were more taijutsu based, but these were still doing minimal damage.

"Who the hell is this guy?!" Kiba shouted.

"Fight now, questions later." Shino responded.

"How is he repelling all of other techniques like this?" Ino questioned.

Shikamaru was the one to answer her. "I don't know, but damn this is a drag. He's got to have some kind of ninjutsu shield or something, it's the only explanation."

Even the wedding guests joined in on the action. Gaara was prepared to use his Sand Coffin Technique to literally crush this imposture into dust, only resisting for concern that his sand might be repelled like all the rest. Temari used her fan to blow the enemy into submission, but he was able to hold his ground throughout it. Kankurō brought one puppet with him to the wedding just in case, Karasu. He at one point looked like he had the assassin in his sights, but the enemy destroyed all of the puppet's arms, and severed Kankurō's chakra threads, leaving the puppet effectively useless.

The seniors and senseis all stepped in as well, even if they had figured out by now that their jutsu weren't going to have much effect. Kakashi did attempt to use his Mangekyō Sharingan, but the enemy, once again, had immunity to genjutsu, even one of that power.

"This is ridiculous! What the hell are we supposed to do?" It was Sasuke, of all people, asking this question.

"I've got one idea," Naruto said, "You help out while the bride and groom handle it! It's obvious that neither your Chidori or my Rasengan are going to work, so Sasuke, I want you to use your Fire Ball Jutsu as a distraction, while I use an army of shadow clones to pin him down and Sakura-"

Naruto had to stop as he turned to his bride. She was in a state of shock, already in tears as she appeared frozen, oblivious to the chaos that transpired around her. All she could see was the church in shambles, the guests either fighting or fleeing in panic, the realization that both she and the love of her life were nearly killed at the alter…

"SAKURA!"

The pink-haired bride was broken out of her shock by her fiancé's yell.

"W-What?"

"Honey, I need you to focus, Sasuke and I are going to need your help to take this guy down!"

Sakura was still coming to when she caught a glimpse of the assassin, at the current moment deflecting or dodging Tenten's entire weapons arsenal. Something came over her, something that Naruto was instantly worried of. He had seen her get angry, often at himself, more times than he'd care to count, but there was still a big difference between the frustrated and angry Sakura that he and their friends all knew and what he was seeing now. This wasn't just anger, this-this was _hate_! Pure, unadulterated, unabashed hate! This assassin would be lucky to have any of his bones or limbs intact by the time she was through with him.

"This was our wedding day…He ruined it…He _ruined_ it! He attacks me! He attacks my fiancé! He attacks my friends…my _family_! **HE…IS…DEAD!**

"Um, honey, I want him taken out just as bad as you, **believe** me, but if we kill him now then we won't be able to interrogate him and get some answers. You understand me, right?"

Naruto braced himself for the worst as his furious wife turned to face him, but then she took a huge sigh to refocus. "You're right…you're right. So what's the plan?"

"Like I was telling Sasuke, he will distract this guy with his Fireball Jutsu, then I'll subdue him with a mass of shadow clones, and while I've got him down, you come in and hit him with a chakra enhanced punch, enough to knock him out while we cuff him."

"That's it? _That's_ you plan dobe? It sounds pretty simple to me."

"Excuse me but who's the Hokage here and whose wedding was this again?"

"Fine, I'll do this your way…today. But how do you know that my fire will be a good enough distraction? This guy's got some damn good reflexes and will likely dodge your clones before they can grab him."

"Hmm…good point."

"Let me handle that." The two boys turned to the pink-haired bride, her resolve restored and determination in her eyes. "I've got a little surprise. It's simple, but it should do well enough."

"Okay, but that super strength of yours is still chakra enhanced, and as we have clearly seen this guy can somehow nullify all chakra techniques."

"It won't matter," Naruto butted in. "He is clearly a taijutsu specialist and Sakura's strength is essentially just enhanced martial arts blows, the force of which are so great that it should still be enough to hold up against whatever shield he's using for the time we need. Besides," he turned towards Sakura grinning, "my girl once punched a _goddess_ into submission, I'm sure this creep has got no chance!" Naruto noticed the blush as Sakura smiled back at him. "So, everybody clear on the plan?"

"Hai!" Sakura and Sasuke both said together.

Sasuke called out to the assassin. "Hey stupid!" The enemy turned and charged at the Uchiha.

"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"

The wave of flames was fierce, but the assassin was quick enough to dodge them as he leaped into the air…only to suffer a painful sting in his right leg.

The pain was caused by a kunai that was thrown by the bride herself…which she had pulled out the garter belt that was part of the lingerie Ino had helped her pick out for her and Naruto's honeymoon. The opening was just what Naruto needed.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

The young Hokage had made about twenty clones, as a precaution to make sure this guy was overpowered. After a moment of struggling, Naruto at last had him pinned.

"NOW SAKURA, NOW!"

"SHARRANO!"

Sakura focused her chakra into her fist and landed a massive, murderous punch at the one who destroyed the most important day of her life. It was damn lucky that whatever jutsu-nullifier he was using was depleting her monster strength even before the punch made contact, otherwise he would have been reduced to a pile of mush and the cathedral would probably be reduced to a crater, no questions asked. As it stands, the blows still did enough to knock the guy out in one blow, maybe enough to put him into a coma.

The battle was over. The assassin was rendered comatose and needed to be restrained before there was any attempt at escape.

Naruto called out to Sai and the other Anbu that had been fighting during the battle. "Cuff him, now!"

Sai happily slapped the cuffs on the unconscious body himself. "What should we do with him, Hokage-sama?"

"First, hold him for a moment." Naruto reached out and pulled down the assassin's mask, revealing…a total stranger. It was a face Naruto had never seen before, and hopefully, when he had told them everything they need to know, would never see again."

"Sai, I want you to take this bastard to the Strict Correctional Facility and place him under heavy guard at all times. I don't want any to take chances once he finally wakes up."

"Yes sir!" Sai bowed and gave those same orders to the Anbu under his command.

"Ino," Naruto called out to the blonde kunoichi, now trying to comfort her heartbroken best friend. "I want you to lead the interrogation, but not until I arrive there myself. This guy obviously won't let you read his mind, so we're going to have to use some more _old fashioned_methods of making him talk, if you catch my meaning."

"Yes sir!" Ino answered with confidence. She usually wasn't much for this sort of thing, but this guy just destroyed her best friend's wedding day, so be damned if she wasn't going to give him hell for it! "But why wait, won't you be going right now?"

"In a minute, right now my place is with the woman I love."

Ino smiled warmly as she left to join her boyfriend Sai and the ANBU escort to the prison. A lot of their friends decided to tag along as well, wanting to hear an explanation for all of this madness themselves.

Naruto had taken a seat next to his bride, taking her hand in his. She looked up at him as he gave her one of his warm, comforting smiles, the ones that always lit up even her darkest moments. She couldn't hold back anymore; she fell into his arms and cried her eyes out. Naruto didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her, whispering soft words of comfort to her as she let it all out. She soon felt better and gave Naruto one last warm hug, followed by a passionate kiss. Naruto then put his hand on her still flat stomach.

"It's okay Naruto, he's safe."

"Thank god for that; I couldn't bear to have lost either of you."

"And you never will. I love you Naruto."

"I love you too Sakura."

The two lovers kissed one more time. But when they broke apart she noticed a slight blush on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry about it Sakura."

"No, really, what are you thinking about?"

"It's-it's not the appropriate time-"

"Naruto!"

"I was just-well…How come you had a kunai hidden under your wedding dress?"

"Oh, um, well-Lady Tsunade taught me that a true kunoichi is always prepared for anything, and I had no other place to store weapons, and after we got engaged Ino dragged me with her to pick out something special for our honeymoon…"

Sakura was feeling embarrassed up until now, when suddenly a playful deviousness kicked in out of nowhere.

"Why, does the thought of me hiding weapons in my underwear bother you, Hokage-sama?"

"Actually, I think it pretty se-Hey Kizashi! Mebuki!"

Sakura's parents soon joined them, saying anything they could to cheer their daughter up and thanking Naruto for keeping her safe.

It was then that they heard a grown; the assassin was barely starting to stir. Sasuke leaned over to see if he could make out anything he might say. What he heard were two words, said so quiet that only Sasuke could hear them before the assassin passed out once again:

"_Hail Taka."_

Sasuke had a blank look on his face upon hearing this, neither a look of confirmation nor of surprise, but a look that let a sharp-eyed observer know that many thoughts were on his mind.

Naruto called out, "Sasuke, what did he say?"

Sasuke paused only for an instant. "He didn't say anything; just some jumbled up rubbish I couldn't make out. We'll have to wait until the interrogation to get more out of him."

"Okay, let get to work healing the wounded and getting this bastard into his prison cell."

Everybody did as they were ordered, but Sasuke never noticed that at least one of Naruto's closest friends, his adviser Shikamaru Nara, was eyeing the Uchiha with suspicion…

* * *

"Sasuke are you alright?"

"Wh-What?"

"I asked you if you knew who this new enemy was, the ones looking for these 'Chakra Gem' thingies?"

"No, I'm afraid the identity of the ones responsible remains unknown at this time."

Naruto only nodded his head at this, but also suspicious that his best friend knew something he didn't want to admit also.

"I still don't understand," Sakura interrupted, "Why do you need to take Shinachiku with you on this mission?"

Sasuke pointed to the map he had brought with him. "Through my connections in the other shinobi nations I was able to come across this map to one of the Chakra Gems, or at least where it is rumored to be buried."

"And where is that?"

Sasuke turned to Naruto, "In the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village."

Sakura let out a gasp while Naruto was lost in thought. The Hidden Whirlpool Village, the name alone referred to a place he had never been, yet also felt so connected to.

"The Hidden Whirlpool Village?" Sakura turned to her husband. "Isn't that-"

"Yes Sakura…That was the village where my mother was born. It was her home before they brought her here to become Kurama's second jinchūriki."

Yes Naruto, we've all read about it in your book. And as you know the Uzumaki clan of the Hidden Eddy Village was long-time allies of the Hidden Leaf Village renowned for their expertise in sealing jutsu; in fact, Lady Mito, the first jinchūriki of the nine-tails, was also the First Hokage's wife. What you did _not_ know is that long ago the Uzumaki clan came into possession of one of the Chakra Gems and used their jutsu to seal it away somewhere in the village…or rather, whatever _remains_ of the village today." Sasuke noticed the look on Naruto's face after that last remark. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean any offense-"

"It's okay. I just…when I was training with Octipops to control Kurama I had to look inside myself, and when I did…I met my mother for the first and only time…"

"Yeah, I know. You put it in your—"

"Hey, don't interrupt him!" Sakura retorted.

"Sorry."

"Anyway," Naruto continued, "Mom didn't have much time with me, I know, but she never told me anything about a Chakra Gem hidden in her old village."

Sasuke was silent only for a moment. "I could be that she never knew about it. The Chakra Gems have been described to me as objects of unfathomable power, as in tailed beast level, so it's not hard to imagine that once the gem was sealed the clan took a vow of silence about it. That or she might have withheld it from you-"

"Watch it Sasuke!"

"I'm only saying that there are a lot of reasons why she didn't, or couldn't, have told you. But now that you've mentioned Kushina, that brings me to why I'm here." Both Naruto and Sakura both paid close attention to what their old friend was about to say next. "According to the sources I've been able to collect, the seal that has been placed on the gem's burial site is a powerful one that can only be opened by another from the Uzumaki bloodline."

"Kushina's blood," Sakura said in understanding.

"_My_ blood," Naruto said in even clearer understanding.

"Exactly. As the last of the Uzumaki clan, you, Naruto, are the natural heir to the Chakra Gem that resides within that village. But you're the Hokage now, meaning that you cannot just abandon your village to go on a mission like this for too long. So that leaves…"

"Shinkachiku," both parents said at the same time.

"Yeah."

Naruto took a deep breath, "So it's not just my son's talent or even his companionship you want, it's his blood."

"Well, when you put it _that_ way-"

"Why don't you just ask Karin to help with this? She is from the Uzumaki clan too."

Sasuke got a very uncomfortable look on his face, one that both his friends noticed.

"Karin and I…we've split up."

"What?! What happened?!" Sakura asked in shock.

"It's personal. Let's just say that we had an argument, things were said, by both of us, and now she's taken Sarada and moved on."

"How long ago was this?" Sakura asked again.

"About a year now."

Now Naruto had to interject. "Why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Because you didn't need to know."

"Sasuke, we're your _friends_, Karin is my _cousin_, Sarada is our _goddaughter_; of **course** we needed to know!"

"Look, my point is that I weighted all of our options and the best way to get to the Chakra Gem before this new enemy does is with your son's help."

Both parents shared a look before Naruto took another sigh, "Have you spoken to him about this already?"

"Yes and the boy is quite excited."

"I'll bet he is. You realize that I would have to inform his sensei about this-"

"That's not a good idea. This mission will require as much stealth and anonymity and possible, so the best option would be if I took the boy myself."

"If anyone but you had said that, I would be throwing you out of my house right now for even _implying_ that!" Sakura said firmly.

"Sakura, I understand your concern, I really do; I'm a parent myself remember? But Shinachiku isn't a little boy anymore, he's a Genin now; before you know it he's going to be an adult. If he's going to grow into a great ninja then he is going to have to get out and experience the real world some time. We can't always use peacetime as an excuse to shelter our children from the real world."

"But Sasuke, he's my son…" Sakura was starting to get tears in her eyes by this point.

"I give you both my word that no harm will come to him. I'll take good care of my godson; he has a great destiny ahead of him, and I will help him fulfill it if I can."

Naruto was silent for a good long while. He exchanged silent glances at Sakura, who did seem to take some comfort in Sasuke's confession."

"Sasuke, if I let my son go with you, on what would be the first real adventure on his life, can you make me a promise of a lifetime that you will bring him home alive?"

Sasuke stood up from the table, smiled warmly, and extended his hand. "I promise on my life that Shinachiku will come home to you alive and well."

Naruto and Sakura both felt comfortable with Sasuke's promise. After exchanging one last, satisfied look, they both nodded, and the Uzumaki and the Uchiha shook hands.

"Alright, I trust you Sasuke. Now there is just one more thing we need to do."

"Oh, and what's that?"

Naruto called out to the stairs. "Shinachiku, could you come down stairs for a minute?"

The patter of feet loudly coming down the stairs could be heard at a quickened pace. The blonde haired boy soon joined his parents and his godfather in the dining room.

"Yes dad?"

"Son, did your Uncle Sasuke talk to you about why he's here?"

"Oh yeah, he told me all about the Chakra Gems and the Grandma Kushina's old village, and about how my bloodline holds the key to breaking the seal protecting it, and about the mysterious enemy that is also looking for it-"

"Yes, yes, that's great sweetie," Sakura interrupted. "But are you sure you _understand_ what your uncle is asking of you?"

"Yeah mom, I know it's going to be dangerous. I mean I know I'm a bit inexperienced, but if this enemy gets their hands on the gem, any of the gems, it could be a disaster for the whole world. But more than that, I _want_ this! Every time I read dad's book or train with Konohamaru-sensei or speak with Kakashi-sensei or Lady Tsunade, I'm so amazed at what wonderful ninja they are and I always wish _I_ could have adventures like that. I know you guys love me and that you're both worried about my safety, but mom, dad...I want to do this, more than anything. And I promise never to give up or give in no matter what's out there, to never go back on my word, and when it's over, to come back home alive, because that's _my_ nindo, _my_ ninja way!"

The three adults were all stunned at the sincerity and passion in the boy's words. There was no reaction from them for a moment until the boy's father walked up to him and crouched down to his level. He put his bandaged, prosthetic right arm out and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"I'm proud of you son. You just grew three feet taller right before my eyes. God I'm so proud you!" Naruto could not hold back his emotions anymore and pulled his son into a bear hug, which the boy returned. "I love you son."

"I love you too dad."

Sakura couldn't hold back the tears of joy as she ran up to her family and joined them in a loving embrace. Sasuke just stood there looking at the family as memories of what happened the day of the parent's first wedding day flashed through his mind.

"Sasuke," Naruto's voice snapped him out of his train of thought, "I'll need to sort things out tomorrow with Konohamaru and the elders, so how about we agree to see you two off in two days?"

"Okay, that sounds like a plan to me."

"You know," Sakura interjected, "if you need a place to stay until then, you're always welcome in our home-"

"Thank you guys, but that won't be necessary. I can find a hotel to crash at for a couple nights. Besides, I wouldn't be able to get any sleep with your legendary bedroom antics going on all night."

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted in embarrassment, desperately trying to cover her son's ears so he could not hear what was already said. And hey, the kid was twelve years old, it's not like he didn't know something about the birds and the bees by now anyway! Naruto just awkwardly scratched the back of his head with his prosthetic hand.

"Sorry, sorry, just having some fun. Well, I guess I'd better get going. Thanks again you guys for all of this. Shinachiku, I'll see you in two days. I hope your prepared for the adventure that awaits you kid!"

The boy's face beamed with excitement as his godfather closed the door behind him.

'Oh man,' the boy thought to himself, 'This is gonna by _awesome!'_

* * *

Whew! That was my longest chapter yet! Okay, so I hope that what I just outlined didn't sound too lame to any of you. To anyone who did not guess it, yes, the Chakra Gems are basically a Narutoverse version of the Infinity Gems from Marvel Comics. I realize that the idea and the name might sound lame to some people, so I sort of made fun of the name in the story itself as a bit of self-referential humor since I could not come up with a better name for our McGuffin(s).

The flashback where Sakura first tells Naruto that she's pregnant with Shinachiku was intended as a direct parallel to the scene in episode 247 of Shippuden where Kushina first broke the news of her own pregnancy to Minato.

I know that a lot of NaruSaku fans might have been brokenhearted to see Naruto and Sakura's wedding ruined by an assassination attempt, but as I said in the second chapter, they did have a second attempt at getting married and the second time everything went smoothly. The gag of Sasuke not explaining how he could tie Naruto's tie with only one arm was literally a gag I came up with on the spot to cover my butt when I realized the scene I had just written. The fight scene itself was probably not my best work, as it was hard for me to write choreography for all those characters, keep the names of all their jutsu's right, and figure out what attack would have greater effect than others, so it pretty much just became each of them trying a jutsu a piece and this assassin somehow nullifying everything that wasn't taijutsu, which even then he could counter with his skills alone.

The team up with the former Team 7 was what I was most proud of. While Naruto's plan was relatively simple (again, I had Sasuke call attention to that in the story), it was the spirit of it that counted. Plus, I really wanted Sakura to be the one to take the assassin out, first because of how understandably pissed she would be if someone had ruined her wedding day, second because the image of her clobbering an enemy with her super strength while in her wedding dress was badass, and third because I came up with the gag of her stashing a spare kunai in her garter belt just in case, something I felt a true kunoichi would do…Besides, I figured it would be quite a turn on for Naruto.

Oh yeah, you all want to know about the "Hail Taka" thing, right? Well…I can't tell you anything yet, sorry. But that was definitely put there to get you to start asking questions about the adventure that is to come.

Well, that's all I've got for now; we'll see how long it takes for me to get the next one done. Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5--Setting Off

Hey, thesaiyanjedi again. Sorry again for another long period without updating, but here is it, chapter five of this story.

This chapter is essentially the last bit of calm before Shinachiku's adventure really begins. I wanted one last chance to show the family all together and give you a better taste of what the Uzumaki family is really like all together. I think it came out charming, and with a lot of affection and fun to be found here.

Once again, I apologize if there are any spelling errors. There will also be references to other works I like and, for the first time, the inclusion of songs, since I have already established that Shinachiku is a terrific singer.

Well, anyway, on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Setting Off**

"I can't believe you agreed to this!"

The Seventh Hokage was forced to sit at his desk as his son's sensei, his first pupil, chastised him for his decision to let Sasuke Uchiha, former traitor to the Hidden Leaf Village, take Shinachiku away on a special mission for an undeterminable amount of time, by himself!

"I understand your concern Konohamaru, believe it. But Sasuke had a point, this new enemy, whoever they are, are going to be looking closely for anyone else who may be trying to secure the Chakra Gems. Our best chance at maintaining the element of surprise is if we send as few ninja as possible on this mission. And as for Shinachiku, my son is of Uzumaki blood and he is the only one that can break the seal-"

"Except for YOU! If finding these Chakra Gems is so damned important, then why not take on the responsibility yourself?!"

"You think I don't want to?! This is my _son_ we're talking about! But I'm Hokage now; I can't be away from the village for too long, you know that!"

"Yes, of course I know that! But—"

"Konohamaru, you've known me since you were still at the Academy. Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me?"

"…No, Hokage-sama."

Naruto got up from his desk. "I give you my word that I did not make this decision lightly, and I only did so because I trust Sasuke, and more importantly because I believe in my son. You do too, don't you?"

"Of course I do! Shinachiku is the best student I could have asked for. I'm truly grateful that you agreed to assign him to me after he graduated."

"As if there was any other Jōnin in the village more worthy than you." Naruto sighed. "Listen Konohamaru, I know you're worried, but Shinachiku is a Genin now, and whether either of us like it or not, going into danger is part of his job. If my boy is going to grow up into a man, than he is going to have to get a taste of the real world. You and I have both trained him well, as has his mother; heck, I think even Kakashi-sensei, Baa-chan, all of us have tried teaching him a thing or two, because from the day he was born, we all knew he was going to be something special, but not-"

"But not unless he works hard for it. There are no shortcuts to being a great ninja, just like there are no shortcuts in life. True greatness isn't given, it's earned." Konohamaru smirked to himself, remembering the very same advice that he himself had given the boy the day before.

Naruto smiled, "I couldn't have said it better myself. Listen, he really wants to go on this mission and, well, I believe in him."

Konohamaru said nothing for a moment, and then let out a deep sigh. "I believe in him too. And I'm proud of him…and of you Nii-chan."

The two old friends shook hands. "Thanks kid. Shinachiku and Sasuke will be leaving in a few hours in case you want to see him off."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

"Very well; dismissed."

With that, his son's sensei left the Hokage's office with more confidence in his pupil than he had before, confidence he should have never lost to begin with. 'He'll be alright,' the Jōnin thought, 'He is smart, strong, and brave; his dad's right, he can do this. Besides, a little adventure might do him some good.'

Back inside the office, Naruto went back to filling out his routine paperwork and emails. His kids were growing up so fast; his son was a Genin now, about to leave on his first real mission, and his daughter was only seven, but before he knows it she too will be graduating the Academy and will be given her own missions as well.

After a while of endlessly boring paperwork, he found his mind drifting, thinking back to one of the happiest days of his life…

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"That's it Sakura! Come on, you're almost there, just a little more! Push! Push!" Tsunade was there coaching her former student, only this time it wasn't training for a battle, or to become a great medical ninja, this was to give her support as she endured the worst pain a woman ever can endure.

Nine months have passed since Sakura's husband first proposed to her. Nine months since they made love for the first time. Now, five months after their second wedding, following the disastrous first one of which neither of them prefer to remember, the pink-haired kunoichi, top medical ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village and wife of the Seventh Hokage, was about to give birth to their first child.

Shizune was there as well, serving as wet nurse to the future mother. "She's right Sakura, you're doing great! Just a few more and we'll see the head."

Tsunade decided to offer up more words of encouragement. "Remember Sakura, you're a woman, you can do this! Men aren't built to handle this kind of pain, that's why we women are stronger!"

"Where is he?"

"What?"

"Where is Naruto?!" Sakura practically screamed.

"He stormed out of his meeting as soon as he heard you went into labor. He'll be here soon."

As if on cue, the doors flew open at that very moment. "Where is she?! Baa-chan, Shizune-chan, where is my wife?!"

"Calm down brat! Sakura's fine! She's doing great and now that you're here you can be here for her."

Naruto saw his wife on the hospital bed as she inhaled another deep breathe before making another painful push. "AAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"

"Sakura!" Naurto practically teleported over to her bedside and grabbed her hand. "Sakura! Its okay, I'm right here! I'm not going to leave you honey; it'll all be over soon—AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Now it was the father's turn to scream as his wife squeezed his hand, which, coupled with the monster strength she inherited from her master, almost broke the bones in his hand.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU ARE NEVER TOUCHING ME AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME! THIS IS YOUR BABY NARUTO…**GET IT OUT!"**

Naruto couldn't do a damned thing but take the verbal abuse and offer all the words of comfort he could; it was a pregnant Sakura, what retort could he possibly make anyway?

For hours Sakura was forced to endure the pain, and Naruto was forced to endure the pain she was giving him; thank goodness Shizune was there to help heal his wounds, since Tsunade was too busy with other things at the moment. This kept going until finally…

"There, I see it! I see the head! Come on Sakura, just a little more! I swear, your baby's almost here! Now PUSH!"

"You hear that Sakura? Our baby's almost her! You're almost a mother and I'm almost a father! Just a little bit more and we can all be a family."

Sakura looked over at her husband, love and compassion in his eyes. It was enough to stir the exhausted young woman to keep going. 'We are almost a family,' she thought to herself. 'Yes, I want this, more than anything I want this. I _want_ a family!'

And so she pushed again, and again, and again, until, at long last…

"That's it Sakura, it's almost over! One more, just one more!"

"**AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"**

A loud cry echoed through the hospital room, but it was not from the mother…It was a newborn baby's cry.

"Shizune! Hot water, NOW! And bring a blanket too!"

"Yes m'lady!"

Time seemed to stand still for the Orange Hokage. Nine months of waiting, all for this moment, the moment when he would finally be blessed with the thing he has always wanted more than anything else in the world."

"Shinachiku…you're here…You're really here." Naruto allowed tears of joy to fall down his face as his eyes never left the tiny, crying infant with blonde hair and green eyes.

He wiped away his tears and looked up to the sky, "Dad…Mom…are you seeing this? Today, your son is a father."

"Yes Naruto," Tsunade said as she held the child in her arms, now wrapped in a soft red blanket as it continued to cry. "You are the father to a handsome baby boy."

"He's beautiful," Shizune said.

"Shinachiku…" Naruto tried to reach out to the child as Tsunade walked passed him.

"HANDS OFF!" Naruto pulled his hand back in confusion. "Mother first, father second."

"O…kay." Again, what could Naruto say? Sakura deserved to see their son first.

Tsunade stood at her bedside, "Sakura?" The woman was so exhausted that she thought she might pass out, but her master's voice immediately caught her attention. "There is someone here who wants to meet you."

The Slug Sannin put the crying bundle in the mother's arms. There was no use stopping the tears of joy from falling.

"Shinachiku…At last we meet. My name is Sakura…I'm your mother."

She felt a hand on her shoulder as her husband leaned in next to her.

"And my name is Naruto…I'm your father."

The boy's crying seemed to calm down as he just started cooing and giggling, making the parent's both smile with pride.

"Sakura," Naruto started, "I'm so proud of you. You've made me the luckiest man in the world today. I love you so much."

"I love you too Naruto." With that both parents shared a soft yet passionate kiss, little Shinachiku still in his mother's arms…

* * *

Naruto smiled warmly as he thought back to that day. It was hard to imagine that it had been twelve years already. It felt like just yesterday he was taking his son to the Academy for the first time, then after school giving him private lessons about everything he had learned during his youth. And now…now he was about to let him go to see the real world for the first time.

He had yet another flashback; this time to a conversation he had with his wife last night.

* * *

Naruto and Sakura were getting ready for bed. After Sasuke's visit they decided to help themselves to a drink; they both felt they needed it. And so Naruto went down to the basement level and scanned through the wine cellar. He picked out a bottle of Chardonnay, seven years old, lucky number, and a good year to boot. The parent's toasted themselves to their son's pending adventure. It was too late to do much now, but tomorrow night they would give their son a proper farewell, a night of family fun before his big trip. For now though, it was time to get some rest.

"Hey Naruto?" Sakura asked after she changed into her pajamas.

"Yeah? What is it Sakura?"

"About Shinachiku…d-did we do the right thing?"

"I think so. Did you see the look on his face? This means a lot to him."

"He's never been on a mission like this before. What if he runs into a rogue ninja? Or a wild animal? Or this new enemy Sasuke talked about, whoever they are? Or—"

"Sakura, he's a big boy now. He knows what he's doing. He's smart, strong, we've both taught him everything we know. And after his speech today, he convinced me. He can do this."

Sakura felt better now. "How is it that you can always guess the right thing to say to make me feel better."

"It's just a part of being a good husband, I guess."

"It's funny…"

"What is?"

"When I told my parents about our mission to the Land of Waves, my mom nagged and worried about me all night, I was afraid that she wouldn't let me go at all. I was an ungrateful brat back then, I thought she was just being annoying, worrying about everything I did and second guessing me every chance she got. Well now look at me, I'm a mom myself and I'm second guessing my own son. It's only now that I understand that she was just doing that because she loved me. I guess it's pretty silly to finally realize something so obvious so late in life, huh?"

"No, no it's not silly at all. Sometimes it's only years later, when we are on our own and living our own lives, that we realize how much like our parents we really are. Look at me, I just lived my life as myself: hyperactive, eager, short-tempered, compassionate. I didn't know until I was sixteen how much of that I got from my own mom."

"Hmmm…So what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Well, first thing I'll need to do is clear this mission with the elders, then I'll have to tell Konohamaru that his student is going on a potential A-rank mission without him; not looking forward to that. Usual paperwork from there. Shinachiku will need to pack his stuff for his trip. I figure that after work we can have a nice dinner, after that-" Naruto thought for a moment. "After that we'll just see where it goes. We could all go swim in the pool, use the hot tub, play a few games, watch a movie in the entertainment room, use the hot spring, whatever sounds fun!"

Sakura smiled warmly, "Okay, we'll just let the day play itself out then. I could pick up some steaks and fish for dinner, and we can pull the rest from the pantry."

"Yum, sounds good! Say, do we have any desserts in stock? Ice cream, cake, pies—"

"You don't keep desserts in the pantry, idiot! Especially not ice cream, it'll melt."

"…Oh yeah."

Sakura sighed, "How can a full grown man with so much wisdom _still_ be that same knuckleheaded kid at the same time?"

"Well, it's that knucklehead who you fell in love with, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is." Sakura kissed her husband. "Come on, finish getting ready for bed."

Naruto got up from the bed and took his shirt off, causing his wife to blush. Nearly twelve years of marriage and even now, getting a glimpse of his bare chest, ripped as if it was carved out of marble, could still get her excited.

The blonde noticed her flustered expression and smirked. "What, see something you like?"

"Oh yeah…" Her eyes were slightly glossed over and a slight bit of drool dripped from her mouth.

Naruto kept changing until he was clad only in his boxers, Sakura staring at him the entire time.

"No, no, no, this just won't due," Naruto said with bedroom eyes. "It's not fair that my wife should get to stare at me in my underwear, yet I can't see her in her's."

Sakura caught onto his little game and gave one of her foxy looks that would always drive him wild. "Who says I'm wearing any?"

Naruto didn't need any further invitation and immediately made a few hand signs.

"SILENCING JUTSU!"

An invisible shield surrounded their master bedroom, that way the kids would get plenty of sleep tonight. The two lovers learned their lesson after that embarrassing mistake they made that magical night.

Naruto walked over to his wife and claimed her lips with his own. Within moments the remainder of their clothes lay scattered on the floor…

* * *

Naruto grinned like an idiot at the memory of last night. 'Yep.' he thought to himself. 'I really am the luckiest man in the world!'

"Screw it," he said. "I've got an evening to plan with my family, so let's get all this paperwork over with. SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Three clones of the orange-clad ninja appeared. "You guys know what to do, so let's get to work."

* * *

At the Uzumaki house (or mansion, really), Shinachiku was packing his scrolls with all the gear he thought he would need for his first big mission. He was probably overpacking, but he figured it was better to be over prepared than under prepared. After putting away several things in his back pack, he went over a checklist he made up.

"Okay…Plenty of kunai check! Shuriken check! Katana check! Nunchakus check! Bo staff check! Twin sai check! Weighted training cloths check! Food pills check! Food rashens check! Wallet check! Laptop with headphones and charger check! Spare scrolls check! Journal and pen check! Hmmm…well, I guess that's everything! SEAL!"

All of Shinachiku's gear was packed up into the scrolls for easy transport.

"Oh wait! I almost forget!"

The boy went over to his bookshelf and picked out a single novel from his collection: _The Tale of Naruto_. It was his father's book, which he had read at least twenty times cover to cover and still never got sick of it. Growing up Shinachiku and his friends could never resist asking his dad to tell them about his adventures, his friends always finding his story the most interesting out of all the adults they interacted with. While Naruto was always happy to indulge them, it got to the point that he wished he could just share it with everyone. Then Naruto remembered Master Jiraiya's first novel, _The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja_, and how autobiographical it seemed to him; hell, his father named him after the main character in that book!

When Naruto told his friends that he was going to be writing the book, he spoke to all of them about it first, as he wanted to remain as truthful as possible, meaning that he had to ask a lot of people's permission first. Virtually all of them did, with the expectation that it would be essentially just an autobiography. Instead, what he had published was an absolute opus, an epic chronicling the journey of a young boy nobody wanted and all feared, into the most respected ninja of his generation and a true hero. The stories chronicled in the book were amazing enough, but the sheer amount of detail he crammed in was astounding. That's because the main body of the book was followed with at least a hundred pages of appendices that provided all the extra background and detail and history that he could not make room for in the main body of the story. It had taken Naruto (or Naruto's clones when he had to do Hokage work at the same time) several years to complete his epic work.

The book was a massive hit when it came out, many stores across all the shinobi nations selling out all their copies on the first day, thanks largely to Naruto's celebrity status. Within Konoha, the release of the book was a phenomenon; practically everyone bought a copy, including all of Naruto's closest friends. But no one expected the story to be as good as it was. Many of Naruto's friends thought the knew him well, but the book revealed things about him they could have never guessed before; in particular, the story about the night his parent's died and the nine-tails was sealed within him broke the hearts of nearly everyone who read it. Needless to say, the reviews were very good.

Some of the people Naruto mentioned in his book even saw praise after it was published; many of Naruto's friends commended for their own heroic deeds that Naruto had crossed paths with. The love story between him and his wife was praised for its maturity and development from rocky beginnings into a bond stronger than words can ever describe. On the other hand, other people were not so lucky, such as Sasuke who, despite Naruto's promise and best efforts to create as much sympathy for him as possible, nevertheless received a lot of backlash for many of his past actions.

Shinachiku grabbed his copy and put it in a small scroll. "No way that I'm leaving without this!"

"Onii-chan?"

Shinachiku looked up to see his little sister standing in his doorway.

"Oh hi Hanami, is something wrong?"

"No, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"Well…I don't know how long you and Uncle Sasuke are going to be gone. What if you don't come back? What if I never see you again? What if you die out there or-" Hanami couldn't go on any further as she broke into tears at the thought of loosing her big brother.

Shinachiku didn't hesitate to dash over to her and wrap her in a warm hug. "Hey, don't cry; I'll be fine."

"I don't know what I'd do without you, onii-chan…"

"You'll never lose me. I promise that I'll come back to you."

Hanami still couldn't stop crying. 'Well,' Shinachiku thought, 'there's still one thing that never fails."

And so, the young Uzumaki boy, with his sister still in his arms, started to sing.

_Listen, baby_  
_Ain't no mountain high_  
_Ain't no valley low_  
_Ain't no river wide enough, baby_

_If you need me, call me_  
_No matter where you are_  
_No matter how far_  
_Just call my name_  
_I'll be there in a hurry_  
_You don't have to worry_

_'Cause baby,_  
_There ain't no mountain high enough_  
_Ain't no valley low enough_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you_

_Remember the day_  
_I set you free_  
_I told you_  
_You could always count on me_  
_From that day on I made a vow_  
_I'll be there when you want me_  
_Some way, some how_

_'Cause baby,_  
_There ain't no mountain high enough_  
_Ain't no valley low enough_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you_

_No wind, no rain_

_My love is alive_  
_Way down in my heart_  
_Although we are miles apart_  
_If you ever need a helping hand_  
_I'll be there on the double_  
_As fast as I can_

_Don't you know that_  
_There ain't no mountain high enough_  
_Ain't no valley low enough_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_  
_To keep me from getting to you_

_Don't you know that_  
_There ain't no mountain high enough_  
_Ain't no valley low enough_  
_Ain't no river wide enough_

_To keep me from getting to you_

Hanami's tears stopped as she looked up at her brother with a warm smile. She returned the hug he was giving her. "I love you onii-chan."

"I love you too imouto. Now come on, mom and dad should be home soon and I hear we're all going to have fun tonight."

* * *

"Kids, we're home!" Sakura called as she and her husband walked through the door.

The kids ran into the front hall to greet their parents.

"So," Naruto said, "who's hungry? Your mother and I are barbecuing steak and fish tonight."

"Yay!" both kids said as their mother went into the pantry and their father fired up the outside grill.

The pantry was fairly large, large enough to walk in and pick the items you want from the shelves. Meats, canned goods, vegetables, fruits, bread, all of it was there. Guests who came to visit their home were often jealous…well, okay they were jealous of their entire house, but the pantry was one of those things to be sure.

"Let's see…whole grain rice would go great with the fish…broccoli and carrots are always good, even if the kids hate them…I could do something with that pasta up there…and I'll pour some root beer on ice. That'll keep those three bottomless pits full until dessert at least."

About thirty minutes later the dinner table was lined with delicious food as Sakura called the kids to dinner and Naruto brought the cooked steak and fish from the grill outside.

"Alright kids, this is the last home cooked meal Shinachiku is going to have before he goes off with Uncle Sasuke tomorrow, so let's dig in!"

The family ate all of their food with enthusiasm. The kids did have to be goaded by their mother to eat their vegetables, but the pasta was good enough that they got over it, and the root beer helped wash everything down.

The steak and fish itself was delicious. Filet mignon, medium cooked, and breaded tilapia were the main course. Who knew that Naruto, a guy who ate nothing but ramen for most of his childhood, could learn to be such a good cook? Although to be fair Sakura always was too…although she did once have to change her recipe for food pills. When dinner was done, everyone's stomachs felt full and content…but then…

"So, anyone still hungry?" Naruto asked that question to the kids and their groans implied that they were full. "No? Okay then…I guess no one wants cake and ice cream tonight?"

"NO!" Both kids yelled at their dad for daring to cheat them out of sweets.

Naruto smiled sarcastically. "That's what I thought."

Sakura brought in the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream; of course, the kid's devoured it in minutes. You'd almost forget that they had just had such a huge dinner minutes earlier. The parent's both laughed at their enthusiastic eating.

After dessert, Naruto turned to his son. "So Shinachiku, since you're the one who going on the big trip tomorrow, why don't you decide what you'd like to do tonight?"

Shinachiku only thought about it for a moment, "Let's get in the pool!"

"Wait thirty minutes first!" Sakura demanded; she was both a mother and a doctor after all.

"Umm…" Shinachiku thought for a moment before a evil grin came on his face. "Hey dad, how about a game of chess?"

"Uh-uh! No way! Not after last time!"

"Oh come on dad, I promise I'll go easy on you. What's the matter…_chicken_?"

'Did he just-Oh that's it!' "Okay kid, you're on! But mark my words you are not outsmarting me this time!"

_Thirty minutes later…_

"Check mate!"

"Damn it! I thought you said you'd go easy on me?"

"I did dad, it's not my fault if you lost anyway."

"Okay, okay you two, calm down. I think it's been long enough now, so why don't we all get changed and get in the pool?" Sakura suggested.

"YAY!" Hanami cheered as she ran up to her room, her brother following to his own room.

* * *

Minutes later the kids went outside, Shinachiku in his green swimming trunks and Hanami in her cute one-piece suit. Both kids practically dived into the pool and started playing around.

"Hey you two be careful!" There father has come out to check on them, dressed only in his orange swim trunks.

"Sorry if I took too long." Naruto turned to the source of the voice and stopped in his tracks. Coming out the back door into the garden/pool area was his wife, dressed only in her red string bikini, the bottom half hugging her thighs and her voluptuous rear end that he loved so much, and her top half emphasizing her low C-cup breasts that had _finally_ grown in by the time she and Naruto started dating; like Lady Tsunade, she was a late bloomer. She may be a career woman and a mother, but like her husband she was still a ninja and made sure to take good care of her body. Besides, be damned if she was just going to let Ino or Hinata outclass her so easily.

"Wow mommy, you look pretty!" said Hanami.

"Yes…yes she does…" Naruto could only stare, no matter how many times he got a look at her body, clothed or unclothed, he was always in awe.

"Hey Romeo, you see anything you like?" Sakura smirked.

"Yep, and if you don't mind I think I'll just help myself." Naruto stole a short but loving kiss from his wife as she wrapped her arms around him. They lost track of time for a moment until a splash of water hit them.

"Hey, get a room you two!"

Both parents separated and blushed madly at both the splashing and their son's rude comment.

"Oh you're gonna get it now young man!"

Soon the parents joined their kids in the pool, both of them splashing their son in mock retaliation. For the next half an hour at least they all played around in the water, father and son having a swimming race, mother and daughter splashing each other playfully, there was even a short game of water polo.

After a while they all got out and dried off, sitting on the lounge chairs by the pool.

"Hey Shina-chan," Hanabi said, "Sing us a song please!"

"What, but I already sang to you earlier."

"Yeah, but now mommy and daddy can hear it too, so _please_?" She looked at him with the bloody sad puppy face.

'Damn the sad puppy face!' "Alright, alright; any requests?"

"How about 'Hooked on a Feeling?'" the boy's father suggested.

"No, no, no; how about 'Don't Stop Believing?'" his sister suggested.

"I always thought it was adorable when you sang 'Rockin' Robin' for the Academy talent show when you were Hanabi's age. I know all the girls in your class loved it too," his mother said; Shinachiku blushing a bit at that last remark.

"Okay, I've got it. This is a song I found in one of the books in our library, it's about this fictional saga about a bunch of people going on a quest to get back their kingdom and treasure and a priceless gem that they lost years before to a fire breathing dragon. And since Uncle Sasuke is sort of taking me on a treasure hunt tomorrow, I guess it's appropriate."

"Oooh, that sounds interesting," Sakura said. "Go ahead sweetie, we're listening."

Shinachiku cleared his throat and then started the song.

_Far over the Misty Mountains rise__  
__Leave us standing upon the height__  
__What was before we see once more__  
__Is our kingdom a distant light_

_Fiery mountain beneath the moon__  
__The words unspoken, we'll be there soon__  
__For home a song that echoes on__  
__And all who find us will know the tune_

_Some folk we never forget__  
__Some kind we never forgive__  
__Haven't seen the back of us yet__  
__We'll fight as long as we live_

_All eyes on the hidden door__  
__To the Lonely Mountain born__  
__We'll ride in the gathering storm__  
__Until we get our long forgotten gold_

_We lay under the Misty Mountains cold__  
__In slumbers deep, and dreams of gold__  
__We must awake, our lives to make__  
__And in the darkness a torch we hold_

_From long ago when lanterns burned__  
__Until this day our hearts have yearned__  
__Her fate unknown, the Arkenstone__  
__What was stolen must be returned_

_We must awake and make the day__  
__To find a song for heart and soul_

_Some folk we never forget__  
__Some kind we never forgive__  
__Haven't seen the end of it yet__  
__We'll fight as long as we live_

_All eyes on the hidden door__  
__To the Lonely Mountain born__  
__We'll ride in the gathering storm__  
__Till we get our long forgotten gold_

_Far away the Misty Mountain's cold._

The family was in awe at what they had just heard. It sounded so beautiful and so epic, and yet it also served as a glaring reminder of the perilous adventure that their son was going to embark on tomorrow. Hanabi was all smiles, as usual, while Sakura had tears in her eyes every time she got to hear her son's beautiful singing voice. Naruto, however, had entirely different thoughts on his mind.

'Right,' the Hokage thought to himself, 'It's time.'

"Okay kids, it's been fun, but I think we should all start getting ready for bed. You have a big day tomorrow Shinachiku," Sakura said with authority.

"Yes mom."

As the four walked back into the house, Naruto put a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Just a second Shinachiku; there is something I want to give you. Meet me in the dojo in five minutes."

* * *

Five minutes later the boy, back in his regular clothes, was in the family's private training dojo where his father was already waiting for him in his regular clothes again, and in his arms was a large scroll.

"Son, do you know what this is?"

"It's a scroll."

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "Yes, but can you guess what it's for?"

The boy could only shrug his shoulders.

"This is a summoning contract. Someone who signs their name on it in their own blood will enter a contract with the great toads of Mount Myōboku. This will allow the signer to use the summoning jutsu to call forth any of the toads to come to their aid if they are in need."

Shinachiku was getting excited now. "You mean like you can summon Gamabunta and Gamakichi?"

"Exactly. My sensei, Master Jiraiya, signed this contract a long time ago, and he later passed it to your grandfather to sign as well, and then to me when I was your age…Now, I think it's time for you to sign as well."

"Wow! Really?!" The boy couldn't believe it; he was about to get his very own summons, just like his dad, mom, and even his Uncle Sasuke.

"That's right! As your father I want to be sure you are ready for anything, so now is as good a time as any." Naruto unrolled the scroll at his son's feet. "Now bite your thumb and sign your name, then place your fingerprints. That's it."

Shinachiku did just what his father said; the contract was signed and completed.

"Congratulations Shina. Now, to use the summoning jutsu, all you need to do is offer more blood on the same hand you signed with, mold your chakra with hand seals and plant your hand on the spot where you want to summon the toad at. The amount of chakra you put into the technique determines the power of the toad you summon. Now it wasn't easy for me the first time, I started out only being able to summon tadpoles for goodness sake. So don't feel bad if you're not able to—"

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

A puff of smoke appeared and after it cleared a toad as tall as the boy himself appeared.

"Hey, I'm Gamasenshi, what do want?"

Naruto was very discouraged at how easy it was for his son to summon a powerful toad on his first try. "It's alright, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I was just teaching my son how to summon for the first time."

"So, you're the great Naruto Uzumaki; my father, Gamakichi, is always telling me about you." The giant toad turned his attention to the blonde-haired boy. "I would be honored to serve you in the future, honorable son."

"Uhhh…Thanks." That was all Shinachiku could say as the toad puffed away again.

"Okay kiddo, its time for bed, we need to be up early in the morning to see you off tomorrow."

"Right dad!"

As the two left the dojo Naruto remembered something amusing. "By the way, did you know that when your mother was just a girl she used to have ranidaphobia?"

"Rani-_what?_"

"A fear of frogs."

"NO WAY! She has a _slug_ contract for crying out loud!"

* * *

The morning finally came. The Uzumaki family was all at the village gate as they waited for the Uchiha. As it turned out, many of their friends wanted to be there to see him off as well. Ino and Sai were there with their son Inojin, as were Shikamaru and Temari and their son Shikadai, Chōji and Karui and their daughter Chōchō, Lee and Tenten and their son Burandon, Kiba and Hinata and their son Ōkami and daughter Tsuki, and Shino and his son Bagu. Konohamaru wanted to be there to see his student off, and even Kakashi and Tsunade were there.

"Man, why do you always have all the luck?" Ōkami complained.

"Because he is the Hokage's son," Inojin responded.

"Wise ass."

"Why would you ever want to go on this crazy mission anyway; searching some all-powerful stone created by Kaguya sounds pretty troublesome to me?" Shikadai asked.

"I don't know, it sounds kind of fun to me; a good chance to get out and eat some exotic foods," Chōchō said.

"Indeed, Shinachiku's flames of youth will carry him to victory in this adventure," Burandon said with his usual overabundance of passion and…well, youthfulness.

"Uh…thanks you guys," Shinachiku said, "I'll be fine."

"Shinachiku," Konohamaru called out to his student, "I have done my best to turn you into a great shinobi, and I have taught you everything I know. Now is your chance to put all that I, your parents, and their friends have taught you to do some real good for the world. Remember all that we have taught you and you will do great. But know that no matter what happens we are all proud of you."

Shinachiku bowed to his master, "Arigato sensei."

"You're your mother's son, you're going to do great," said Ino.

"Indeed," Sai agreed.

"Go get'em kiddo!" Kiba said enthusiastically.

"Yes, you are a strong and excellent shinobi like your father; you can do this. We all believe in you," Hinata told the boy with pride.

"Arigato Aunt Hinata," Shinachiku said with gratitude, "arigato everyone."

Shikamaru walked over to Naruto because he wanted a private word with him. "Hey, are you really sure about this?"

"I have faith in him."

"It's not your son I'm concerned about. It's Sasuke."

"Excuse me?"

"He is so rarely here in the village, and then suddenly he appears one day and asks to take your son on a mission to find this all-powerful gem we've never heard of before, against an enemy that he doesn't even know the identity of…And _none_ of this makes you suspicious?"

"Sasuke's past is behind him. He's had years to prove himself to our village and he hasn't let me down yet."

"Let's hope you're right."

At that point Sasuke finally arrived. Most of the group was pleased to see him, but Shikamaru could only eye him suspiciously.

"Morning Sasuke," Naruto said.

"Morning dobe." He turned to the boy, "You ready to go kid?"

"I'm ready Uncle Sasuke! Let's go get that Chakra Gem!"

"Goodbye onii-chan," Hanabi gave him a goodbye hug which her brother returned.

"Thanks sis, I'll be back, I promise."

"Your father and I are so proud of you for doing this," Sakura told her son, "It feels like just yesterday that I was changing your diapers and taking you to your first day at the Academy. Now look at you, you're already becoming a man."

"Thank you mom."

Sakura couldn't fight it; she pulled her son into one last, desperate hug. It was Tsunade, her old sensei, who put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile when she looked up at her. Sakura took that as a sign to let him go and dry the tears that were just barely starting to form.

"Good luck kid, I wish you the best out there," Tsunade told him.

"Yes, we both do," Kakashi concurred.

"Thanks guys." Shinachiku turned to one last person, his father. "Well, I guess this is it."

"Yeah, it is." Naruto reached out with his bandaged prosthetic hand and put it on his son's shoulder. "This is where your story begins son, but that story is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"

The boy smiled with pride, "I will dad!"

"Come on," Sasuke interrupted, "we need to get moving."

"Hai!"

As the two began walking out, Sasuke gave one last look and Naruto; no words were said, but Sasuke knew what the Orange Hokage was thinking. 'Don't worry dobe, I'll bring him back alive.'

With that, the two ninjas left the village and Shinachiku Uzumaki began his very first adventure…

…But several feet away, a mysterious figure was hiding in the shadows watching the entire scene. When the two ninja left, he turned to a confidant that was next to him.

"Send word, Uchiha has taken the boy with him just as expected. It will soon be time to come out of the shadows and for our plans to at last come to fruition. Revolution is at hand…_Hail Taka._

* * *

Well, what did you think?

Let's go over the references this chapter. First of all, Naruto's book, which I have referenced several time by this point, is essentially the Naruto universe's answer to "The Lord of the Rings," an epic of immense scale and so detailed that he needed to write appendices just to get all of the back story, history and detail out to his audience.

You may have noticed that as Shinachiku was packing up weapons to bring with him on his mission, he picked out a katana, nunchakus, a bo staff, and sais, this was obviously my homage to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The flashback scene of Shinachiku's birth was meant to have direct parallels to Naruto's own birth, particularly the way Tsunade does not allow Naruto to hold his son before Sakura does, much like how Biwako did with Minato.

I named Gamakichi's son Gamasenshi, "senshi" is Japanese for "warrior."

Naruto's referencing Sakura once having ranidaphobia (fear of frogs) was something that was established in the Land of Rice Fields filler arc from the original anime. I thought it was a funny idea, so I decided to bring it up, but being married to the Toad Sage's student she obviously would have gotten over it.

In order to make this story work, I needed to make up my own version of some of their Konoha 11's kids, which meant coming up with some original names. Being short on ideas, I settled for using puns. Burandon is the Japanese spelling of Brandon, a blatant reference to the late Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, the inspiration for both Lee and Guy. Ōkami is Japanese for "wolf," Tsuki is Japanese for "moon," and Bagu is Japanese for "bug."

Naruto's last words of advise to his son were paraphrased based on Doc Brown's last words of advice to Marty and Jennifer at the end of "Back to the Future, Part III."

Lastly, the songs Shinachiku sings in this chapter. The first song is "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. I had the way it was used at the end of _Guardians of the Galaxy_ on my mind. The second song is "Song of the Lonely Mountain" by Neil Finn. I really liked this song from _The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey_ and wanted an excuse to use it, so I used the treasure hunt text of the song as a similarity to what Shinachiku is about to go through.

I am open for suggestions for other songs that I can use if future chapters, my only rule is no rap of hip hop.

Well, that's all I've got. Please read, favorite and subscribe; Until next time!


	6. Chapter 6--The Missing-Nin with a Mouth

Hey guys, thesaiyanjedi is back! I know, I'm really sorry that I've been gone for so long, but now that the adventure is officially starting, I needed to stop and decide what direction I wanted it to take. I did make time to hammer out a Christmas one-shot called "A NaruSaku Family Christmas," which if any of you guys could check out and provide me some feedback, I'd really appreciate it. It is set in the same universe as "Shinachiku's First Adventure," but several years before this story, and it's sort of just a day-in-the-life of Naruto, Sakura and the kids during Christmas.

I also want to thank you all for your support and your patience with this story. In response to Czar Joseph's comment about my TMNT reference from last time, I honestly did it just as a fun little joke; I did not know about ChaosMagemon's own story "Teenage Jinchūriki Shinobi", so I swear it was not meant as a ripoff.

As for one of my guest's comments about all my talk about Naruto and Sakura's sex life, I am planning on keeping it at the running gag level for the time being, but I am not ruling out the possibility of a lemon in future, if not here than in another story. I just found it a funny idea that snowballed from there. Naruto is, as we all know, a natural pervert (look at the men who trained him for goodness sake) and Sakura, even if she'd never admit it, is a closet pervert herself (as Konohamaru proved), and I wrote that they dated for _five years_ before getting engaged, even moving in together by at least their third or fourth year. That is a _long_ for two people to agree to be abstinent, so after their engagement was finally made they both said "Screw it, no more waiting," and went at it like crazy…not learning until later that all of their party guests heard _everything_ they did throughout the night!

At this point, I am actively trying to make you question Sasuke, especially as things pan out later, so be alert.

But most important of all, I want to issue a heads-up to my readers about this chapter because I am introducing a new character into the story that is based heavily on a very popular character from Marvel Comics. The title of the chapter pretty much gives it away, but in case it doesn't, trust me, you'll get it once he shows up.

Okay, with all of that said on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Missing-Nin with the Mouth**

Sasuke and Shinachiku have been traveling for nearly a day now, and the pair was making good time. Leaping from tree to tree, Sasuke was impressed at the boy's ability to keep up with a Jōnin-level Leaf Ninja like himself. Then again, giving that this boy has been trained by Naruto, Sakura, Konohamaru, and some spare lessons here and there from many of their friends, maybe it wasn't a surprise.

'Actually,' Sasuke thought to himself, 'this kid really has the makings of something special. He has an abnormally large charka reserve like his dad, and above average chakra control like his mom. He's got his dad's power and stamina and his mom's strength and brains. Not a bad mix of genes all things considered.'

Shinachiku was focused on the adult ninja in front of him as he leaped through the tree tops. He still could not believe that he was here, doing a mission this important and without his sensei. 'I wonder what I'm going to run into out here. We still don't know much of anything about this enemy, whoever they are. I may be the Hokage's son and all, but I'm still just a Genin for God's sake! I do escort missions and recover people's lost possessions. I'm not expected to take out Jōnin-level missing-nin all on my own! How do I know for sure that I'm ready-?'

"Shinachiku!" The boy's self-doubting thoughts were interrupted at the sound of Sasuke's voice. "Stay focused kid, you're falling behind!"

"Gomen Sasuke-sensei."

"And don't call me that either. I'm your supervisor for this mission and your godfather; I'm not your teacher. You have enough of those back home already."

Shinachiku hung his head. "Gomen."

After another couple of hours of running Sasuke could sense that the boy was becoming fatigued. He noticed that it was becoming dark out, so he figured that now was as good a time as any to take a rest for the day.

"Hey kid, there's a small village near by with an inn where we can stay for the night. We'll rest up then head back out tomorrow morning."

"Hai, Uncle Sasuke!"

They made it to the village within fifteen minutes. It was a very small, humble kind of place that traders and the like visit, or tourists or other ninja traveling from one hidden village to the next.

The inn that they were staying at reflected this. It was small, homely, offered comfortable enough living space for a limited number of people, and even served complementary breakfast. Sasuke took it upon himself to check both of them in.

"Excuse me ma'am?"

The innkeeper, an elderly woman seemingly in her late fifties to mid sixties, turned around from where she was working to address her customer.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"I'd like a room for two please, overnight stay only."

The woman noticed Shinachiku standing next to him. "Is that boy there your son?"

"What? No, he's not. Well…technically he's my _godson_, but we're on a mission from our village and we just need to catch some rest for the night."

"Oh, alright then sir, we get shinobi passing by here on business a lot." The woman got out her register to ring them up. "Can I have your name please?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

The woman looked up at her guest once again in shock. "Wait, Sasuke Uchiha? _The_ Sasuke Uchiha? I've heard of you!"

'Oh terrific!' Sasuke thought to himself in annoyance, 'Just what I fucking need, yet another damned annoying fangirl, an _elderly_ one no less!' He figured he might as well play along. "Yes, I'm—"

"Aren't you that Konoha boy that betrayed his village to join Orochimaru just to get revenge on your own brother? And the one who joined the Akatsuki to help hunt down the jinchūriki? And the one who plotted to wipe out his own village even after he killed his brother? And then plotted to wipe out the shinobi order altogether by killing all of the Kage's and entrapping the tailed beasts?"

Sasuke was left speechless for a few seconds. "Uh, ma'am, I'm not sure where you heard so much about me—"

"I read all about you in Naruto Uzumaki's book."

'Damn it Naruto!' Sasuke thought in anger, 'You and your stupid book! I warned you what it would do to me! But _noooo_, you _had_ to tell people the truth, didn't you?!'

"Uh…yeah, that's me. And this is my godson, Shinachiku Uzumaki."

The boy bowed his head in respect, even if the woman's listing off of his godfather's numerous war crimes did make him feel a little…awkward.

"Wait, Shinachiku Uzumaki? As is Naruto and Sakura's son?"

"Yes I am ma'am." Shinachiku said with respect.

"Well why didn't you say so?! For the Hokage's son, I'd be happy to give you any room in the inn, on the house."

Sasuke was stunned…and a little bit discouraged. "Oh…okay then." 'What the hell? I say my name and I'm treated like trash, despite everything I've done to make amends since then. Meanwhile this kid whose never been on a real mission before gets treated like a prince.'

After they settled inside their room, Shinachiku was unpacking for the night as a question popped into his head.

"Hey Uncle Sasuke?"

"Yeah, what?"

"How is it that you ever became a Jōnin? You defected from the village when you were a boy and didn't get reformed until after the war."

"I had to take the Chūnin exams and get recommendations for Jōnin appointment, same as everyone else."

"Yeah, but weren't you a bit…err, _old_ to be taking the Chūnin exams by the time the war ended?"

Sasuke frowned at him rudely. "It couldn't be helped. Like you said I deserted the village and after that I needed to rebuild my reputation from the ground up. Kakashi and your dad had to fight to get me pardoned and keep me from serving a jail sentence for the rest of my life and for me to get my ninja status reinstated. There was no way they were going to get me an undeserved promotion as well."

"But, my dad-"

"Your dad was a proven war hero who had worked long and hard to earn the love of his village and the entire shinobi world. I was a traitor and a criminal who committed countless war crimes and then had a heel face turn right as the war started…And then tried to bring the entire shinobi order down again…yeah. Anyway, the point is that your dad had earned his promotion that day…"

* * *

It was soon after the war, and Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi were called into Tsunade's office. Tsunade was sitting at her desk with Shizune standing at her side, Tonton in her arms.

"Thank you all for coming. I brought you here because I have an important announcement to make, and I wanted the three of you to be the first to hear it." She paused for a moment before continuing. "As you know, I have done my best to serve this village as it's leader ever since Naruto here helped show me the meaning of being Hokage."

Tsunade gave a smiling glance at Naruto, causing the blonde to blush. He couldn't see it, but Sakura was smiling at him too.

"I have seen a lot of things in my life; I've lived through two wars, seen many of my loved ones die, and even though I don't look it, I feel like this job has aged me even more than I already was." Everyone was about to object, particularly Sakura. "Don't start, you all know it's true! Anyway, all of those experiences really make one think about life and about the future. Therefore, I have come to a decision…" Tsunade paused again, "…I have decided to retire as Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village."

This earned gasps from everyone in the room.

"Lady Tsunade, you can't! This village needs you!"

"Sakura, the times are changing. We've done our best to guide the new generation to prominence, and the time is upon us when that generation will replace us completely."

"So who's gonna take your place?" Naruto asked with nervous hope in his eyes.

"After careful consideration…I've decided that Kakashi will be taking my place."

Everyone let out a gasp in surprise and their head's all snapped towards the stunned masked Jōnin.

"ME?!" Kakashi's one visible eye was practically bugging out of it's socket. He couldn't believe this; even worse, he was feeling _really_ bad for his student.

"Yes Kakashi you. You have good skills in politics, and you're reputation is well known around the shinobi world; not to mention you're one of the strongest Jōnin this village has to offer."

Tsunade had to frown at what she was about to say next. She turned to the orange-clad boy standing before her. "Naruto, I know you must be disappointed, and believe me if I could recommend you as my successor, I would…but the truth is that you still need to improve your political skills before you can be Hokage. You've proven yourself a hero and a warrior, but you still need to show us you're a leader."

Everyone turned to Naruto, who for a moment had a flash of disappointment in his eyes. But then he got a massive grin on his face.

"Don't worry about it Baa-chan, I understand. Congratulations Kakashi sensei!" Naruto smiled and bowed to his teacher.

'Wow, he's taking this very well.' Kakashi thought as he looked at his student. 'Of course, he always has been an expert at hiding behind a mask.'

'Naruto…' Sakura felt bad, _really_ bad for her friend. All his life he has wanted to become Hokage; he has trained for years to reach this moment…only to have it shot down again. She could read the boy like a book; she knew when he was lying. She knew he hid his pain behind a mask. Hell, she was the cause of some of that pain…she felt even worse about that part.

"Naruto, it's okay to be upset; Lady Tsunade is only doing what she feels is best for the village. It's nothing personal."

"It's okay Sakura, really. I was disappointed at first, but Baa-chan's right. Despite everything I've been through I still have a lot to learn. I know I'm strong, but I've never lead anyone before. Sakura, you, Sasuke and all of our friends might have my back and believe in me, but that doesn't mean that if I start giving you guys orders you'll trust me enough to do what I say."

"What? Of course I would. Naruto, I trust you with my life!"

Naruto was taken aback at what Sakura had just said. The pretty young girl with pink hair who was there on their first day together as Team 7 would _never_ have said that.

Sakura, herself, seemed embarrassed. She didn't even know why she had said that. Thus, she blushed. "Um…I mean…it's just…well, you know what I mean, right?"

"Yeah, sure thing Sakura…we're friends."

Sakura didn't realize she was frowning. "Yeah…best friends."

Kakashi felt sad for the two of them. 'Even now they still can't admit their feelings; I don't want them to end up like Rin and Obito.'

Shizune felt no less sorry for them. 'Naruto, you've been like a little brother to me; Sakura, you're like my sister…Why can't you both grow up and move on? You two have something special between you. Don't throw it all away just because Sasuke is back.'

Tsunade looked more frustrated than sad, "Damn it Sakura! Even now you still can't see the truth! You got Sasuke back, but now it's time to move on. You were my best student, but when are you going to wake up and admit that you and Naruto are perfect for each other…And Naruto, when are you going to wake up and see that she's changing? Stop holding on to the past!'

"Besides," Naruto continued, "I'm probably still under qualified to be Hokage no matter how you look at it. I mean, I am technically still a Genin after all."

"You are aren't you?" Tsunade asked sarcastically. "It's easy to forget that after all you've done and been through." Tsunade smiled, "Well, since you've brought it up already, Naruto, could you please get on one knee?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me brat, get on one knee right now!"

Naruto awkwardly, and in a bit of fear, did as Tsunade asked. 'Okaaay…this is weird.'

Tsunade got up from her desk and walked up to the boy. "Naruto Uzumaki, for your heroic actions in war and in protection of this village, for your role in fending off the invasion from Orochimaru and Sunagakure, to helping me to see the light and accept my role as the Fifth Hokage, to helping to defeat the machinations of the Akatsuki, to single handedly saving this entire village from Pain, to becoming the most praised hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War, and most recently for reforming the former traitor Sasuke Uchiha…the United Shinobi Forces have all decided to forego the exams and officially promote you to the rank of Chūnin!"

"_What?!"_ Naruto shouted in the most over-the-top way possible.

"What?!" Sakura and Kakashi were shocked too, but not as loud about it as their teammate.

"That's correct. Naruto, all of the shinobi leaders were indebted to you for your defeat of Kaguya, Madara, Tobi and…" she said the last name with reluctance, "…Sasuke, during the war, as well as with the rest of your impressive resume."

Naruto found himself blushing at the older woman's sudden praise of him, while Sakura was in the background, smiling in pride for him.

"But when they realized that you achieved all of this despite never having had a chance to complete the Chūnin Exams…well, they all felt embarrassed for you."

Naruto frowned in annoyance at that remark, a vein appearing on his head.

"Naruto," Tsunade continued, "this is a once in lifetime opportunity that most ninja would kill to be honored with. And I can't image anybody more deserving of this than you."

"Baa-chan," Naruto responded, "this-this is amazing. I don't even know what to say to thank you and the other leaders for this…but I can't accept this. It wouldn't be fair to the other ninja who have had to study and train long and hard for—"

"Maybe I'm not making myself clear brat! This is a once in a _lifetime_ opportunity, possibly my _last_ official action as Hokage, and you _will_ accept it! I admire your humility kid, but you talk about this being unfair, no, forcing poor, inexperienced Genin fresh out of the Academy to have to face _you_ in the exams, _that's_ unfair! Now you are going to accept this promotion and finally get going somewhere in your ninja career and that's all there is to it! **Is that clear?!**"

Naruto was terrified now. 'Baa-chan sure is scary when she's mad.'

"Lady Tsunade's right, Naruto." The boy turned to the source of the voice, Sakura. "You deserve this; you've earned it, more than anyone I've ever met."

Naruto paused for a moment, realizing the praise she had just given him. "Arigato, Sakura." He turned back to Tsunade, "Alright, I accept Baa-cha-" He stopped when he noticed the very irritated scowl on her face. "I mean, Hokage-sama!"

"Thank you. Now then…Naruto Uzumaki, do you swear to continue to hold to the ideals of this village and it's heritage?"

"I swear."

"Do you swear to continue to improve yourself, both in mind and in body, for the furthering of your shinobi career and livelihood?"

"I swear."

"And do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition and pledge yourself to the added responsibilities you will be given as a defender of this village and it's people?"

"I swear!"

"Then as of this moment, I, Tsunade, granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, and Fifth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, hereby dub you, Naruto Uzumaki, Chūnin of Konohagakure! Now…rise!"

Naruto Uzumaki got back up on his feet, a sudden flaring of pride coursing through his body. A smile graced his face because of it. "Thank you so much."

The old woman smiled in pride as tears welled up in her eyes. "You're very welcome kid." After that, she pulled the boy into a bone crushing hug, nearly suffocating him as she drowned his face in her colossal cleavage.

"Baa-chan…air!"

Tsunade let him go at his request. "Shizune, could you get Naruto a flak jacket please?"

Shizune smiled as she set Tonton down and grabbed a flak jacket that she had brought in with her in preparation for this moment. "Naruto, take off your jacket please."

The boy unzipped the top portion of his signature orange jumpsuit and removed it, leaving him in his black shirt that helped show off his teenage physique. Sakura didn't even realize that she had a slight blush from seeing this. Shizune put the green flak jacket on him.

"Wow," Naruto said admiring himself, "thanks Shizune!"

He turned around as looked at his former sensei and teammate. "Hey Sakura, are you okay?"

The pink haired kunoichi had tears of joy in her eyes. She felt so proud for her friend; she had been there with him every step of the way on his journey; to be there to finally see him take such a big step towards his goal…she didn't know what came over her, but she enveloped Naruto in a huge hug.

"I'm so proud of you Naruto, you're one step closer to your dream!" Sakura exclaimed crying.

Naruto was stunned to say the least, but he felt compelled to embrace her back. Still, he felt guilty about this because of one glaring elephant in the room that was on his mind.

'Sasuke…'

He let go of her, to her surprise. "Thank you Sakura. I'll see you at Sasuke's trial tomorrow."

As he said this, he put his left hand on her shoulder, his only remaining hand after what had happened between him and Sasuke at the Valley of the End. For Sakura, Naruto's missing arm was a constant reminder of all the sacrifices that he went through to keep his promise to her to bring Sasuke home…she was overcome with guilt and regret every time she saw it.

With that the boy left Tsunade's office (soon to be Kakashi's office) and returned to his apartment.

'You know,' Sakura thought to herself, 'that jacket and those orange pants…that's not a bad look for him…Wait, why am I thinking about that?'

* * *

"Wait a minute Uncle Sasuke…" Shinachiku interrupted, "how do you know exactly what happened if you weren't in the room when my dad became a Chūnin?"

"Well…because your parent's told me about it later."

"That, or it's because the author didn't realize he chose to include a flashback that the character couldn't possibly remember anything about because he wasn't actually in the flashback! Seriously dude, that's just clumsy writing!"

That sarcastic voice did not come from Shinachiku or Sasuke. Both of them turned to the window of their room to see a thinly-framed figure looking in through the window. He wore a back and red colored outfit, more specifically red spandex overlapped with a black flak jacket and black belts and pouches holding all of his gear and weapons. His gloves were also black, save for the red fingertips. On his back he carried twin katanas. But the most striking feature about this man was his face, or rather, his lack of face. It was covered with a mask similar to Kakashi's except that it was red in color and covered op his entire head save for a strip across the front that exposed his eye area, stretching across the nose area so it could cover both eyes at once.

Sasuke and Shinachiku were quick to take defensive positions.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Sasuke demanded.

"Well to answer both of your questions, I am known as Randamu, and I am a missing-nin from…well, actually I don't remember what village I'm from. But as for why I'm here, its for the same reason the two of you are…because the writer of this fanfic wanted me here, DUH!"

Both shinobi dropped their guard in confusion.

"Huh? Writer? Fanf—What are you talking about?"

"Oh sorry, I forgot that neither of you have seen the light yet. You see, I just so happen to be one of those extremely rare and, might I add, ruggedly handsome individuals who has been blessed with the ability to see the truth, that secret reality of how the universe works that everyone else is delightfully oblivious to. I can see beyond…" Suddenly there was a drum roll that came from absolutely nowhere, "…the Fourth Wall. DUM, DUM, DUM!"

Neither of the two leaf ninja could say anything after the big speech that the weirdo before them had made to them.

"Uh…yeah. Where did that music come from?" Sasuke asked.

"And why are you wearing a mask?" Shinachiku asked.

"It's called 'Hammerspace' douchebag, look it up! And as for my mask, it's so no one runs in terror at the sight of my horribly disfigured face."

"But I thought you just said you were handsome?"

"Did I? Hmmm…Eh, whatever!"

"Okay enough!" Sasuke had had his fill of this bullshit. "What do you want with us?"

"Well, the truth is that I'm here to capture the boy and collect the bounty that's on his head."

"What?!" Shinachiku immediately unwrapped his weapons scroll, releasing his katana from it. "What bounty? I'm just a kid and this is my first mission!"

"Yeah, but you're also the kid who has the bloodline that can unlock the seal guarding one of the Chakra Gems." Randamu unsheathed his own katanas and got into a battle pose. "And my employers want that stone, so they want you alive, so they placed a bounty for others to claim if they bring you to them alive." The masked man suddenly turned his head as if he were talking to somebody else. "Did you get all of that readers, 'cause I ain't repeating it?!"

"Who hired you?!" Sasuke demanded loudly.

Randamu turned to face him, and even though he was wearing a mask, Sasuke could still tell that the guy was smirking sarcastically and had his eyebrow risen. "I think that you already know the answer to _that_ question, don't you Sasuke Uchiha?!"

Sasuke only starred at the masked man before him with an angry, yet contemplative expression.

The whackjob in the red and black suit turned back to his target. "Oh kid, I almost forgot to ask, after my employers finish doing whatever undoubtedly horrible things they are planning to do to you, do you think you could convince your dad to autograph my copy of his book?! I've got the hardcover limited collector's edition with color illustrations! Oh, and also, can you set me up on a dinner date with your mom? A piece of ass like that is worthy of getting porked by this awesome piece of manliness any day of the week!" He even went so far as the thrust his own crotch outward in a obscene manner at that last part.

Shinachiku was furious! "You've got ten seconds to get the hell out of here before I cut your damn head off, you perverted asshole!"

"Go ahead, it'll just grow back. But you know what, maybe you're right; I suppose twelve years of marriage to a raging sex machine like your dad would ruin your mom for most guys, even guys like me. Say, is your sister at the age of consent yet?"

"No, and don't you ever think that about my sister again, pedophile!"

"Hey I resent that, I asked you if she was of age first, right? I may be a pervert but I'm not _that_ big a pervert!"

"Uncle Sasuke," the boy called out to his godfather, "can I please kill this whacko?"

"Normally I'd say yes, but I don't know what your mom and dad's going to say if they found out you killed somebody on your first mission. Besides, I doubt this lunatic is even worth it and he may be able to lead us to whoever he's working for-"

"Oh wait a minute; what was I thinking?!" Randamu spoke up again, "I forgot that you and your wife split up, right Sasuke? That means that Karin is back on the market again. That girl is a _minx_, and if she ever got down with a creep like you then she obviously has some low standards-"

The masked man never got to finish his sentence because his head was quickly slashed clean off by Sasuke's katana. The head rolled away as blood pooled on the floor of their room. Shinachiku was horrified.

"Sorry kid, but you're going to have to get used to that if you want to be a ninja." He turned back to the masked man's corpse, "Nobody talks about my w-"

Sasuke stopped as he saw something of pure horror play out before his eyes. The headless body of Randamu was standing up!

"Oh! Damn dude! That really friggin' hurts!" The voice came from Randamu's decapitated head! "Hold on just a second."

The body went and picked up the head and put it back on top of his severed neck, where it quickly reattached and reconnected as if nothing had happened.

Both ninja were shocked, confused, and absolutely terrified all at once, especially the boy.

"Now then…" the masked man got his katana's up from off the ground and had them at the ready, "…are we ready to begin?"

* * *

Well, there you go, another chapter, another cliffhanger! I really don't know if I made you guys happy or completely killed this story by introducing this character.

And yes, in case some of you somehow haven't guessed, Randamu is very much the Naruto universe's answer to Deadpool. His name is the Japanese word for "random"; a pretty fitting description for both characters if you ask me! I really don't know if his humor and power to break the Fourth Wall (in this case constantly pointing out that this is, indeed, a fanficition) will be a turn off or not.

The flashback scene where Naruto is promoted to Chūnin was partially inspired by the scene in JTZ29's fic "Naruto: You've Opened My Eyes," where Tsunade tells the characters that she is retiring and Kakashi will be her successor, but while Naruto's mature acceptance of that was inspired by his original version, the surprise promotion to Chūnin wasn't.

Following the story as a fan, I always found it kind of funny that Naruto went the entire series without ever getting passed Genin rank, no matter how much he did to prove himself. The first time it was called attention to at the start of Part II was fine because he was still growing and hadn't had time to take the exam because he was on his training trip with Jiraiya. But by the time he single-handedly save the village from Pain, I seriously hoped he would have gotten an honorary promotion right there! By the series' end, it looks like he went from Genin straight to Hokage…really? If he wanted to one day get the top job in his village then Naruto needed to climb the shinobi ranks at some time. So, I decided why not make it Tsunade's last action as Hokage? If she knows she can't make him her immediate successor, at least she could give him the push in his shinobi career.

A little clarification about Sakura during this scene; the idea is that this is the point where Sasuke has just been brought home after the war but before he left again to seek redemption. As such, Sakura would sill be confused about her old feelings for him and what she has been feeling for Naruto. Remember, Sakura did offer to go with Sasuke the day he left, but in my version of events he outright refused her so she could stay and sort out her true feelings. By this point, despite what Kishimoto ultimately decided, I imagine Sakura would be _extremely_ confused about where her true feelings lay. I may explore that further later on, if not in this story, then maybe in another one at another time. I do like the idea I that Sakura's sight of Naruto's missing arm and later his prosthetic arm as a symbol of all the sacrifices he made just for her sake, a _major_ source of guilt for her.

Incidentally, the joke about me not realizing that I had come up with a flashback for a scene that neither Sasuke nor Shinachiku would have been there to witness, was exactly what happened. And first I tried to rewrite it so that Sasuke could be in the scene, but this being so soon after the war ended, as in a day or two before he left the village again in chapter 699, it just didn't feel right to me. So, since I had the idea to introduce this character, I decided that having him explicitly point out such a blatant mistake would be a hilarious way to introduce him.

Well, I guess that's all for now; sorry so much again for taking so long. Until next time, see you!


	7. Chapter 7--Life Without Shinachiku

Hey everyone, thesaiyanjedi back again with another chapter!

I know that a lot of you are probably waiting to get back to Shinachiku and Sasuke's fight with Randamu, but unfortunately that's going to have to wait a little bit. This chapter is instead going to focus on the family's first day without their son there. More importantly, we are going to see the latest seeds of the growing conspiracy being sown. Remember that flashback in Chapter 4 about the assassin that ruined Naruto and Sakura's first attempt at getting married? Well, here we are finally going to get the continuation of that as the assassin is brought in for interrogation. And, like most great conspiracies, the scene may leave you with more questions than answers.

Quick note on the last chapter, thank you for the positive feedback on the introduction of Randamu. I really wasn't sure how introducing such a bizarre fourth-wall shattering character into a Naruto fanfic would be received, but it seems you guys like him.

There will be some references and homages here, as always, so keep your eyes out for them.

Well then, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Life Without Shinachiku**

Naruto was at his desk typing furiously at his laptop. It had been hours ago that he and his family and friends saw their son off on his first solo mission. He figured that going to work today would be pretty rough after going through that…Boy was he right.

'Dear God this is boring.' Naruto wasn't really keeping track of how many forms, electronic or paper, that he had to go through today, but he was sure that it was too many already. Oh course, that was because his mind was on other things at the moment.

'Shinachiku, are you alright? Is Sasuke taking care of you? Have I sent my only son to his death?' That last thought caused Naruto to put his head in his hands.

As the Hokage he was responsible for assigning all the missions in the village and he always knew that the time would come, and at Shinachiku's age it would be soon, that he would have to let his son out into the dangerous shinobi world. But he never expected that it would be without the rest of his team, or his sensei.

'No,' Naruto thought to himself, 'no, I believe in him. He convinced me two nights ago that he can do this. Besides, I already put Sakura's worries at ease, so I can't start having doubts of my own now.'

He was doing more work when he heard a knock at the door. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal a pair of familiar faces, two of the three men most responsible for shaping him into who he is today.

"Iruka-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! Come in! What can I do for you?"

"Nothing much, we just wanted to check in and see how you're doing after this morning," said Kakashi.

"I'm doing fine, really."

"Naruto," Iruka interrupted, "it's okay to be worried about Shinachiku."

"Who says I'm worried? I have faith in him."

"As do we all," Kakashi said, "but don't think that being Hokage means you have to cover that up."

"I'm not covering anything up. He's got Sasuke with him and he's been well trained; I've made sure of that. My son will find that Chakra Gem before this enemy can—"

"Naruto." Kakashi said simply.

Something in Naruto cracked at that moment. It was like a dam of worry he was holding in was at last ready to burst. He didn't say anything, instead he just sat at his desk and put his bandaged hand to his face. He openly signed to himself.

"I never thought…neither of you has ever been a parent, neither of you knows what this is like, to send your own child off to what could very well be their death."

"Excuse me?" Kakashi asked incredulously, "I may not be a father, but I am a teacher. Every mission that I had with you, Sakura and Sasuke I was _always_ worried about you kids! The thought of one of you not coming home was my greatest fear. When I lost Sasuke to Orochimaru, I felt like I had lost a son…just like I did when you nearly died when the Nine-Tails was pulled from you. When Jiraiya-sensei told me he was going to take you with him on your three-year training trip, I had no idea what would happen; I had no way of knowing whether you'd come home alive! But I would always put those feelings aside; do you know why?"

Naruto shook his head no.

"Because I believed in you."

Naruto didn't know what to say to the masked former Hokage, but he was touched by his sensei's words.

"Naruto," Iruka said, "I have been an instructor of academy students for most of my shinobi career. In that time I have seen a lot of kids that I've gotten to know grow up and move on to become fully functioning Genin, and from there Chūnin and Jōnin. And as you teach so many of these kids you find yourself forming attachments to some of them and sometimes it becomes hard to see some of them go. And by far the most difficult student I've ever had to let go of…was you."

Naruto let out a gasp of surprise at what his former sensei had just said to him.

"When you were a boy you were ostracized, lonely, and desperate for attention. You were disadvantaged at the academy from the beginning by having to deal with unfair, biased instructors who were actively trying to make you fail your Genin exams all because of that fox spirit that lay within you. In another life I might have been no different from them, but Lord Third Hokage made me understand the truth, that you were not to blame for anything the fox did or the lives that it took that night…my parent's included. You were just a newborn baby that had this burden thrust upon you, and because of that you were hated. I wanted you to have some kind of role model in your life, to feel some kind of nurturing, so I kept a watchful eye on you. I treated you to ramen, I encouraged you to keep up your studies, and I was there for you to give you advice when no one else would. The truth is, Naruto…you are the closest thing I've ever had to a son."

Naruto felt like crying at his old teacher's words. It was true; growing up, Iruka was the closest thing he ever had to a father. Kakashi and Jiraiya all were that way too, but Iruka was the first one to ever be there for him, and Naruto could not imagine what his life would have been like if Iruka, or any of them, hadn't been there.

Naruto dried his eyes. "Thank you for that you guys. I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that."

"No apologies necessary kid," Kakashi said, "letting go of your kids is always tough."

"Can I ask you something though, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"You were my dad's student once, and so you knew him pretty well. So tell me, if he had lived long enough to see me grow up to be my son's age, would he have let _me_ go?"

Kakashi didn't say anything for only a moment before he put on a proud smile beneath his mask. "I have no doubt about it."

Naruto smiled, "Thanks." He took a quick sip of his morning coffee. "So, anything else I can do for you guys today?"

"No, not really," Iruka said, "just of couple of old men checking in on their old student. Hope we didn't detract from your work too much?

"Oh no, my door's open anytime," Naruto said with one of his signature smiles. "Besides, I appreciated the distraction for all this paperwork!"

Kakashi chuckled, "I can relate. All right then, see you later then, Hokage-sama."

With that both men exited Naruto's office. The Orange Hokage let out an annoyed sigh as he went back to his paperwork.

Five minutes later, he heard another knock at the door. 'Who is it this time?' "Come in."

A young adult, about five years younger than Naruto was, entered the office in full Anbu gear. He wore a mask resembling a hawk to disguise his identity. Naruto did not need to see his facial features to know exactly who it was.

"Report Captain Odaku!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the Anbu said removing his mask. The shinobi had a youthful, yet rugged face that looked like it had seen plenty of action in his time. The man had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and fairly fit muscles. He also had two scars on his right cheek, a souvenir from a previous battle.

"We have recovered the data you asked for Hokage-sama."

Odaku pulled out a scroll and placed it on his leader's desk.

"Did you have and trouble retrieving it?"

"No sir. I've never let you down before, and I'm not about to start now, my lord."

Naruto grinned, "Well, after Sai you are my top Anbu agent."

"And it has been an honor serving you, Naruto-sama."

"Thank you Odaku, I can take it from here. Dismissed."

The Anbu Captain bowed to his leader, and replaced his mask before leaving his office.

Naruto was left staring at the scroll that was placed in front of him. For twelve years he has been looking for an answer and this scroll might finally hold the answer he seeks. He could still remember that day even now, from the day both he and his wife both tried to forget…

* * *

Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility, formally known as the Special Ninja Felony Prison, the most high-security prison in the village. It was the place where the worst of the worst of the village's criminals, including murderers and missing-nin, worked off their debts to society. Criminals such as the brothers Fūjin and Raijin, and even Mizuki, the first enemy that Naruto ever fought and defeated, have all served time is this place. Even Sasuke Uchiha would most likely have spent the rest of his life there, had Kakashi and Naruto not both stuck their necks out for him.

Naruto and Sakura were walking to the prison now. It was the place where the assassin who tried to kill them both during their own wedding was currently being held. Right now he was being held there for interrogation, but Naruto had given orders not to begin until he got there. Sakura insisted on going with him. Normally Naruto would have insisted she stay away, both for her sake and for the baby, but this woman just had her _wedding_ ruined, so he wasn't going to dare say no to her now! Actually, Naruto was surprised that Sakura wanted to go so soon after what happened. She only allowed them time for her to change out of her wedding dress and he out of his tuxedo.

The couple made it to the prison, security letting the Hokage and his bride in on sight. Passing through the halls to the interrogation room, Naruto put his arms around Sakura as several of the prisoners they were forced to pass by started doing horny cattle calls and making obscene comments upon seeing a young women like her. Given the experience she has had today, it is understandable that she was in no mood for this. It was only very cold glares from the Seventh Hokage himself that kept them in check.

After they made it to interrogation room, they found that several of their friends were there, and all of them changed out of the fancy clothes they wore for the wedding, including Ino and the rest of the bridesmaids getting out of their dresses, and into their ninja gear. After all, it was hard to interrogate a prisoner if you aren't even dressed for the job. Once the two of them got into the room, they knew that it was time to get this thing started.

Ino stormed into the interrogation room where the prisoner was forced to sit at a cold metal table, handcuffed, with Sai and two Anbu guards watching his every move. One of the guards watching him was a quick up-and-comer named Odaku, whose reputation had impressed the Hokage. In the now crowded viewing room Naruto and Sakura looked at the scene from the one-way window. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Chōji, Lee and Tenten were all there to support their friends. Kakashi and Tsunade also chose to be there to provide support for their former students, and as former Kage's themselves, the attempted assassination of the village's current leader and his bride was of significance to them. Gaara, Darui, Chōjūrō and Kurotsuchi were in the room as well with their bodyguards and escorts; as the current Kage, an assassination attempt on one of their peers, especially while in their presence, was considered an official piece of business so they felt an obligation to be there at least for the interrogation; besides, Gaara was not just going to leave his closest friend after seeing his and Sakura's big day ruined like this.

They all watched, some of them drinking water or coffee, as Ino began asking questions.

"Who are you?"

"I have no name."

"Not good enough. What is your name?"

"I have no name."

"Fine. Who are you working for?"

"I would be killed if I say."

Ino slammed her hands on the table. "You should realize that whatever is left of your possibly very short future depends on what you tell us today."

The assassin put on a smug grin, "I didn't know that it was in the great peacekeeper Naruto Uzumaki's good graces to threaten people with their lives just to get what he wants."

Ino grabbed the prisoner by the collar and pulled him out of his chair. Odaku and the other Anbu instantly made a move to stop her, but Sai signaled them the stop.

"Let me make something very clear to you: you are a criminal! You tried to a assassinate the Hokage and his wife today—"

"She's not his wife _yet_, now is she?" the assassin asked with a smug grin.

"SHUT UP! You committed a serious offense on a political leader! The man you tried to kill is my friend! And most importantly, the woman's whose wedding you destroyed today just happens to be my _best friend in the world!_"

"You can threaten me all you want blondie, but I'm not going to talk."

Ino threw the assassin back into his chair in rage. She stood in front of him and stared straight into his eyes, then made the hand seals of one of her clan's signature techniques.

"MIND READING JUTSU!"

"I think we established back at the wedding that that's not going to work."

He was right; despite how much chakra she was putting into the technique, Ino could do nothing to penetrate his thoughts or memories.

"How are you doing this? Why do none of our chakra techniques work on you?"

"Sorry, trade secret."

The door suddenly slammed open, and into the room stormed the Hokage himself.

"Alright, I've had enough games."

The assassin gave another sarcastic smile, "Good evening Hokage-sama; how's your bride today?"

Naruto grabbed the assassin by the hair and slammed his head down on the table.

"Owww! Don't you know never to start with the head?! It makes the victim all fuzzy!"

Naruto couldn't have cared less and slammed his fist down on the assassin's open hand. The assassin groaned in pain again as he had his head down staring at his hand.

"Look at me," Naruto ordered coldly. The assassin did not. _**"LOOK AT ME!"**_

Those in the room, and those on the other side of the glass, could not remember the last time they saw Naruto this angry. Sakura in particular was very uncomfortable at seeing the man she loved like this. She could have sworn that some of his more fox-like features became more pronounced for just a moment, and everybody could sense the Kyuubi's chakra flare up for a split second.

"Let me make this situation clear to you: you're a _criminal_, you _ruined_ my wedding, you attempted to kill me, my _fiancé_, and my _unborn child_, you then attack _all_ of my _friends_, you've committed an S-class crime against the Hidden Leaf Village by trying to kill it's leader, and the _**only**_ reason why trash like you is _**still alive**_ is because, for the moment, _**I**_ am _**allowing**_ it! So either answer our questions or _**SHUT…YOUR…MOUTH!**_"

The assassin, and everyone else, was dead silent for a moment after Naruto's outburst. After what felt like an eternity, the assassin finally spoke.

"Who I really am is of no consequence, but those whom I serve call me Anon."

"Fine," Naruto said. "And whom do you serve?"

"I wish I could tell you, but it's too soon. And as for why none of your chakra techniques work on me…now's not the time for you to find out, if there ever will be a time."

"No more riddles, what are you talking about?"

"Sorry, I told the blonde girl that if I told you anything I was dead…" The assassin then fiddled around inside his mouth with his tongue, then grinned, "…and now it's time for me to keep true to that."

He opened his mouth only briefly to reveal something that shocked Naruto, Sai, Ino, and everyone else in the room and behind the glass.

"Suicide pill!" Sai shouted.

Odaku reacted with seemingly lightning speed. He grabbed the assassin's jaw and jabbed his finger into his mouth. "Don't you dare, you son of a bitch! Don't bite down! Who do you work for?! We want a name…GIVE US A NAME!"

…It was too late. He had done it. The assassin bit down on the pill. Foam gurgled out of his mouth as Anon breathed his last breath.

"Damn it!" Naruto slammed his prosthetic hand on the table in frustration.

"Forgive me Hokage-sama, I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop him."

"It's not your fault Odaku; you were doing your job." Naruto turned to Sai. "Be at the ready. I'm going to report this to the Elders and get an investigation underway, see if there's any chance of figuring out whom this guy was working for and how he nullified our jutsu's."

"Hai!" Sai responded. "But what if the Elders don't approve of this investigation?"

Naruto said nothing for a moment, "I'll get back to you." He was about walk out of room, when he stopped for a moment. "Sai, Ino, Odaku, thanks for all your help. I sorry I kind of lost it back there."

"It's okay Naruto, we all understand," Ino said. "I mean, I kind of lost it for a second there myself." Sai nodded in agreement with his girlfriend. Odaku didn't say anything.

Naruto nodded his head in thanks and went back into the other room. Everyone in there looked at the young Hokage with a mix of sadness, pity, and even worry after that outburst he just showed them.

Naruto sighed, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it kid," Tsunade reassured him.

"No one can blame you for loosing your temper after everything that happened," Kakashi commented. "You were just letting him know who's boss, and no one knew he had a suicide pill hidden on him."

"Naruto," Gaara called out, "if it was my wedding and my fiancé that was threatened…I can promise you that the one responsible would not live long enough to even make it to an interrogation. You're a better Kage than me, old friend."

Naruto smiled meekly at his friend.

"That suicide pill seems like something the Anbu should have picked up on when they searched him," Shikamaru noted. " I wonder how that could have happened?" He glared in Sasuke's direction as he said that.

Sasuke himself remained silent, as if he was deep in thought.

Naruto bypassed his friends and stood next to his wife. He put an arm around her and whispered words of love and apology into her ear, and he took her hand into his other hand.

"Don't worry sweetie; I promise you that the next time we get married it will be perfect."

"Why couldn't today have been perfect?" Sakura asked sadly.

"I-I don't know Sakura. I just don't know."

"I don't like it."

"I know, I'm so sorry any of this happened-"

"No, I mean I don't like seeing you get that angry. It's not right; the Naruto I know is hyperactive, goofy, stupid, but he's also kind, selfless, compassionate, and inspiring. Seeing you get that mad, like some animal has taken over you…I just think back to that day at the Tenchi Bridge. Seeing you turn into that…that…" Sakura almost choked up as she kept herself from saying the wrong thing, "I just don't want to see you lose yourself again." Sakura broke down and started crying again.

Naruto instantly enveloped her in a tight embrace. "You'll never lose me Sakura, never."

They lost track of how long they held each other like that. There was some official business that needed to be done and some questions to be asked by the others in the room, but no one dared to intrude on the lover's personal moment.

"We'll be married soon Sakura, I promise."

"I know Naruto…I love you."

"I love you too."

The two of them shared a soft but passionate kiss; it didn't matter what the future held, or what crises came their way, they could get through all of it, together.

* * *

That was twelve years ago. It seemed that the mystery of the anti-chakra barrier the assassin had been using that day may never be solved. But Naruto would periodically send what Anbu he could spare on top-secret investigative assignments to follow up on any possible leads that came his way. These usually lead to a dead end, but now, within this scroll, Naruto might have finally found the answer he has been seeking.

'Leave it to Odaku; you can depend on him for anything.'

Naruto made the proper hand sign. "Release!" The seal on the scroll would not release.

"Well that's weird." He tried again, this time pouring in more of his chakra. "Release!" The seal on the scroll still would not release.

"Wow, this is just plain strange. Must be a hell of a secret if a Kage-level shinobi can't release it." He picked up the scroll and examined it. 'Who can I take this to that I can trust? Maybe Kakashi? Or Tsunade or Shizune? I wonder if Sakura's advanced enough.'

Naruto took another sip of coffee. 'Hmm…maybe its best if I keep this with me until I figure something out? Something tells me that this shouldn't be shared with just anyone.'

With that he picked up the scroll and pocketed it in his jacket, zipping up the pocket after doing so. He would figure this out later; right now he still had piles of damned paperwork that were all due before lunch.

* * *

Sakura was making her rounds at the hospital. She walked down the hallways in her white lab coat over her signature red dress of the Haruno clan. The nurses all bowed and greeted her properly; the women at the hospital, particularly the younger women, all admired Sakura. How couldn't they?

She was everything those other women respected both on the job and off. She was an exceptionally well-trained kunoichi, a student of both Kakashi Hatake and Lady Tsunade herself, and as a result of the latter she was now the most renowned medic-nin in the entire village, possibly the most renowned in the world. She was brilliant, strong, beautiful, and she took excellent care of her body.

But more than all of that, they admired her because of her family life. Despite being such a devoted career woman, she still put her family above all else. Her relationship with Naruto was the envy of all of them. Naruto would occasionally take time off of his work, usually his lunch break, to visit his wife and even after all these years they still looked so in love. Quite a few of the women already thought Naruto had grown quite handsome, so the see a woman they admired so much with such a wonderful man…they were kind of jealous, especially after the rumors got out about their sex life, which put some fairly romantic and erotic images in all of their minds.

Even more admirable than her role as a wife was her role as a mother. The girls at the hospital all loved Sakura's kids; Shinachiku was a wonderfully kind boy and Hanami was the most adorable little girl ever. Sakura knew the proper amount of motherly affection and strict guidance to show her kids, and they all admired that.

As Sakura made her way to her office, she went over her clipboard checking forms, procedure approvals, and double-checking rounds. She would have some of the staff come up to her with questions and forms that needed to be signed for approval, which she did with total focus and speed, like a professional. Of course, once she got to her office and shut the door behind her, she let out a huge breath and sat at her desk.

In the privacy of her own office, she reached into her desk and pulled out a bottle of sake. Like her husband she was not an avid drinker, but Tsunade had warned her that the job would, inevitably, cause her to hit the bottle more than she normally would. And today was one of those days, not because she was swamped with work, not because she had failed to save a patient, but because she had just said goodbye to her son.

As she poured some sake into a shot glass and took a drink, she looked at the row of framed photos that lined her desk. These images were what kept her going throughout the day. One was from years ago, the group they all took together when she first became part of Team 7. Another photo was of just her and Naruto days after the war ended, days after they first confessed their love A third photo was of them on their wedding day…their _true_ wedding day; she had a special genjutsu on that day to draw less attention to her pregnancy, a admittedly easier thing to understate during their first wedding than during their second. Don't get the wrong idea, she was filled with pride whenever she saw her pregnant form back then, and their second wedding ended up not being that long after the first, but despite all of that there was some base feminine side of her that just didn't want to look like a blimp on her wedding day. In a fourth photo, the two of them were joined by their newly born son. A fifth photo was next to it, a fourth member joined their family, their newborn daughter, while their son, now five years old, was very excited to be a big brother.

Looking at the photos, in reminded her how much time had really passed and how much her little boy had grown. It almost made her want to cry, but no, she had done enough crying, she needed to be strong and believe in her son, just like Naruto did. They were ninjas, all of them, danger was a part of their lives and she had to accept that.

'Now I understand how mom must have felt whenever I left home,' she thought to herself. 'Of course, if not for Naruto and Sasuke I'm sure I wouldn't be here now, especially you, Naruto." She remembered long, long ago when Naruto saved her life from the sand. She had assumed it was Sasuke that did that, so she was surprised to learn the truth. How did it take her so long to realize how much she owed him?

But her thoughts also briefly went to her other former teammate. "Sasuke, please bring my son home."

There was a knock on the door. Sakura quickly snapped to attention and stashed her sake back into her desk. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal her old teacher, her role model, "Lady Tsunade, come in, come in!"

The older woman (though you'd never know it with the Transformation Technique she uses to look as she did in her prime) closed the door behind her and approached Sakura's desk with a sympathetic smile.

"Hey Sakura, I just wanted to stop by and see if you were still okay."

"I'm fine m'lady."

"Are you, you were pretty emotional this morning?"

Sakura frowned, "It's just hard to say goodbye to my son, that's all sensei."

Tsunade nodded, "I understand, really. We're all worried about him, I mean, I'm the one who helped deliver him, remember?"

"I remember; thank you for being there for me today, sensei."

"No problem Sakura." She was surprised when the grown woman who had been her best student gave her a big hug, but she did not turn her away and fully embraced her instead.

After letting her go she looked the pink haired woman over. "You know, sometimes it is hard for me to imagine that the young girl desperate the get strong and defend the ones she loved has grown up into such a powerful, brilliant, and I must say beautiful young woman."

Sakura actually blushed. "Sensei…"

"No, I'm serious Sakura. You have surpassed me in every way; you've got all of my power and brains, your true beauty has finally blossomed, and you've surpassed me in one thing that I've never been able to do."

"What's that sensei?"

"You've formed a family." Tsunade suddenly had a sense of sadness on her face. "Sakura, when I lost my brother Nawaki, it was one of the worst days of my life. When I lost Dan it was just as bad. And then when I lost Jiraiya—" the woman almost broke down in tears, "I didn't know how much he really meant to me until he was gone. And I am so…so proud that you've been lucky enough to find true love and happiness and start a family, something I never could do."

"I'm sorry m'lady, I never knew," Sakura comforted her teacher. "I always knew that you and Master Jiraiya were close, but I never thought…"

"We were like you and Naruto in so many ways," Tsunade thought affectionately. "We were teammates since we were kids; I was serious and studious, he was goofy and perverted, even back then. We never were together officially, but after Dan died he would make love to me to help break the tension and cure my loneliness-"

"Wait, _WHAT?!_" Sakura was shocked and a little bit horrified to hear this for the first time. "Sensei, you had _sex_ with Jiraiya?!"

"Oh come off it Sakura! I was a full-grown single adult woman and I had needs like everyone else. Jiraiya and I both agreed that we weren't meant to be together and we were just releasing some tension the way we would not be comfortable doing with anyone else. Of course, now whenever I think back on how amazingly good he was-"

"Ew! Gross!"

"Aw come on Sakura!" Tsunade was outright teasing her student at this point, not unlike Ino would do. "He may have been the biggest pervert on the planet, but he knew how to make a woman feel special. I know that his skill set rubbed off on Naruto; the performance you two gave us at your engagement party is proof of that!"

Now the poor pinkette was truly embarrassed. "SENSEI!"

"What? You two were together five years before he proposed, lived together at least two years before then, both of you were closet perverts-and don't tell me you're not Sakura, because I know you better than that-it's no wonder that after he finally popped the question that you both finally gave in and did the deed. I was proud of you that night; Naruto with Kurama's stamina and lust and Jiraiya's libido and teachings, you with _my_ libido and teachings; you really are the envy of every woman in this entire village! I never knew you two could be so loud and vulgar either!"

Sakura wanted to crawl under a rock and die. She was never going to live down what happened that night. But then again, she never regretted any of it. What she and Naruto shared that night was…incredible... There was no other word to describe it. They went at each other with the ferocity of two animals in lust. Naruto had a fox spirit sealed inside him and it was a fox's stamina that he showed her. And Tsunade was right, Sakura always did have an inner pervert inside her, she just never admitted it to others. After she and Naruto got together, she found herself fantasizing about him a lot, and he her. But they chose to wait, so that their first time would be special. When they got engaged, neither could take it any more, they needed each other-it was like making love with a _god_! Every fantasy, every emotion, every secret desire and, yes, perversion either of them had been holding in came out that night and lasted for several hours.

Besides, if not for that night, she wouldn't have been blessed with her son, and she wouldn't give up him or his sister for anything!

Tsunade noticed a change in the young woman's posture. 'Good, she's being honest with herself now.'

"Sakura," she said, getting the woman's attention, "you really are lucky, you know that, right?"

Sakura smiled, thinking about her life and her family. She then touched the gold necklace with an emerald stone that hung from her neck. "Yeah, I am."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Come in," Sakura said.

A young woman, roughly in her early twenties, with short black hair and brown eyes, entered her office. It was Tsuta, one of Sakura's most trusted nurses who looked up to her like an older sister. In a way, she looked to Sakura as an idol the same way that Sakura had looked up to Tsunade.

"Excuse me, Lady Sakura," Tsuta said, "but we have a man in emergency right now having a heart attack!"

"What?! I'll be right there!" Sakura said immediately snapping to attention. "I'm sorry, m'lady, but I need to go."

"No, you go and do your job; make me proud."

Sakura smiled one more time before she steeled her resolve and went to work.

* * *

At the end of the day both Naruto and Sakura made it back home at around the same time, Sakura having picked up Hanami from the academy. When the family was all at home, there was an obvious sense of…emptiness inside their lavish house. Naruto and Sakura both felt awkward to not have their son home with them. Hanami felt sad and lonely not having her big brother there at her side.

At dinner, the three of them were relatively quiet.

"Hanami, sweetie," Sakura said, "You've barely touched your food."

"I'm not very hungry mommy."

"Don't go to bed on an empty stomach sweetie," Naruto added. "Please eat your dinner."

Hanami continued to eat as she was told, but she didn't look happy about it.

"So," Sakura started in an attempt to brighten the mood, "what happened during everyone's day?"

"Pretty typical day," Naruto said, "Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei came by to check up on me about Shinachiku leaving, after that it was mainly more paperwork and a few mission briefings, same old stuff."

Naruto felt kind of bad keeping the whole truth from his wife. 'I know I should keep the scroll a secret until I figure out how to open it, but it feels wrong to keep this from her like this. Maybe I should-no, no, she doesn't need me bringing up bad memories right now.'

"Oh, okay," Sakura replied, "Well, I got a visit from Tsunade-sensei today about Shinachiku also. After that I saved a man who was having a heart attack; typical day from there."

Sakura felt kind of bad for hiding anything from her husband. 'I know I should tell him about what I found inside that patient today but-no, no, he doesn't need to be burdened with bad memories right now.'

"Okay, way to go honey." Naruto said with pride. "How about you Hanami, how was school today?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Sweetie, what's the matter?" Sakura asked out of worry.

"Nothing."

"Sweetie, please, what's wrong?"

"I just…" Hanami started crying, "I just miss Shina-chan, mommy!"

Sakura instantly brought her daughter into a hug. "Oh, its okay baby, mommy misses him too." Sakura couldn't help it, try tough she might, she was crying too.

Naruto joined them both, wrapping his arms around his wife and daughter. "There, there sweetie; we all miss Shinachiku. But don't worry; your brother is going to be fine. Your Uncle Sasuke is taking good care of him."

"I still miss him daddy. I want him here to make me laugh, to make me feel safe, to sing songs to me; I feel so lonely without him!"

"Shhh…" Sakura whispered soothing noises in her daughter's ear to try and cheer her up. "We all miss him dear, but don't worry. Soon he'll come back home and we'll all be a family again."

Naruto was at a loss. He wasn't sure what the right thing to say was, but he needed to do something to cheer up his daughter. And then it hit him, he knew just what to do:

_Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna get easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get brighter__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna get easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get brighter_

_Some day, yeah__  
__We'll get it together and we'll get it all done__  
__Some day__  
__When your head is much lighter_

Sakura listened as her husband sang to Hanami, just like Shinachiku would do. It touched her, so much that she decided to join in:

_Some day, yeah__  
__We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun__  
__Some day__  
__When the world is much brighter_

_Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna be easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get be brighter__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna be easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get be brighter_

Naruto listened as Sakura took over singing for him. She wasn't the world's best singer, but as far as he was concerned her voice was beautiful. The two parents made eye contact, and no more words were said. As they looked down at their daughter, a smile now forming on her face, the two of them went into a duet.

_Some day, yeah__  
__We'll get it together and we'll get it all done__  
__Some day__  
__When your head is much lighter__  
__Some day, yeah__  
__We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun__  
__Some day__  
__When the world is much brighter_

_Some day, yeah__  
__We'll get it together and we'll get it all done__  
__Some day__  
__When your head is much lighter__  
__Some day, yeah__  
__We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun__  
__Some day__  
__When the world is much brighter_

_Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna get easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get brighter__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things are gonna get easier__  
__Ooh-oo child__  
__Things'll get brighter_

_Right now, right now_

_You just wait and see how things are gonna be brighter_

Hanami hugged her father in happiness; she still missed her brother deeply, but she felt a lot better now. Naruto hugged her back, with Sakura joining in.

'Come home soon Shinachiku,' Naruto thought to himself, 'your family misses you…a lot.'

* * *

Well, what did you think? Once again the chapter dragged on much longer than I anticipated. I'm sure a lot of you were confused about what Sakura might have found while helping that man having a heart attack. I thought of that while I was writing the last scene so that Naruto isn't the only one hiding something from his spouse...That wasn't meant to sound the way it sounded, but you know what I mean. I was going to reveal her own discovery in this chapter as well, but it was already going so long that I decided to merely tease the idea here and get back to it later.

I introduced two new characters in this chapter, Odaku and Tsuta. Tsuta is the Japanese word for "ivy," going along with Sakura's name reflecting cherry blossoms. As for Odaku's name...well, I can't tell you what the translation is yet without giving away a spoiler. Also, the assassin's name Anon is short for "anonymous."

Now as for the references this time around, I set the interrogation scene in the Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility, formally known as the Special Ninja Felony Prison. This location was featured in one of the earlier filler arcs from the anime that take place in between the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc and the beginning of Shippuden. I chose it simply because I could not recall any other prison being introduced in Konoha anywhere else in the Naruto canon.

About Ino's mind reading ability, this is an assumption I am making as a fan. I realize that she has never actually been shown reading someone's thoughts in the series, but she still comes from a clan that specializes in mental-based techniques. So, if she can transmit her consciousness into someone's else's body, or transmit messages into the minds of multiple people simultaneously, then I think reading someone's thoughts would not be too hard for her...Except in this case, for reasons unknown.

The interrogation scene itself was inspired by Batman's interrogation of the Joker in "The Dark Knight"; like when he slams the guy's head on the table and then punches his hand, just like Batman did.

Naruto's violent outburst at the assassin was inspired by two sources. His screaming "LOOK AT ME!" was again lifted from "The Dark Knight," during the disturbing torture video the Joker made of the Batman impostor, he screams that line at the top of his lungs while off camera and it was so uncomfortable and scary that the entire audience fell silent; no really, that whole scene was so creepy that when it was over you could hear a pin drop in the theater!

The other source was from "Star Trek Into Darkness." The scene where Naruto is outlining the assassin's crimes and yelling at him to shut his mouth is based on Kirk's yelling at "John Harrison" in that movie; the main difference is that Naruto is right in the guy's face staring him down while Kirk was yelling as "Harrison" through a glass cell.

The assassin ending his life with a suicide pill can be accredited to a number of sources, but primarily I was thinking of Adrian Veidt's assassin in "Watchmen" and Heinz Kruger in "Captain America: The First Avenger." Keep that reference in mind as more chapters come out.

In case any of you noticed, yes Sakura has the exact same photos on her desk that Naruto did in Chapter 2.

The necklace Sakura was wearing, with a gold band and an emerald gem, was a carry over from my other story, "An Uzumaki Family Christmas." If any of you could do me a favor and give that a read as well, I REALLY appreciate it!

Once again I am bringing in levity by keeping up the running gag of Naruto and Sakura's sex life. I mean no offense to NaruHina and SasuSaku fans out there, but I just figure, looking at both characters, that of all the most popular ships for this series, NaruSaku would have the most active and healthy sex life. We all know how much of a pervert Naruto is and that Sakura is too (she can deny it all she wants, but Konohamaru proved it), so if they dated for five years and lived together for nearly two years, that's A LOT of built up sexual tension! So once they finally got engaged they both said "Screw it" and let everything out...no pun intended. Thinking about the canon ending, Hinata seems a bit too submissive for an energetic guy like Naruto and Sasuke is implied to be away from the village so often that he and Sakura likely don't HAVE that much of a love life (again, nothing personal to their fans). But Naruto and Sakura together...(cue music) "Ooohh yeah..."

Lastly, of course, is the song, "Ooh Child" by The Five Stairsteps. I wanted something appropriate that the parents could sing as a duet to Hanami and I remembered how it was used in "Guardians of the Galaxy" and thought it would work.

Well, that's all I've got, so until next time, see you!


	8. Chapter 8--An Unpredictable Battle

Hey, thesaiyanjedi here, back again with another chapter.

This time we are going to finish up Sasuke and Shinachiku's encounter with Randamu, so expect more Fourth Wall jokes and pop culture references as well as, hopefully, an entertaining fight scene.

I would like to say that I have gone back in and cleaned up most, if not all, of the spelling mistakes from the previous chapters, and I hope that it gets a lot less clumsy from here on out.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 8: An Unpredictable Battle**

"Now then…" the masked man got his katana's up from off the ground and had them at the ready, "…are we ready to begin?"

Shinachiku and Sasuke both had their own katana's at the ready, preparing themselves for whatever this opponent might do…So you can imagine their surprise when he decided to take off into the village laughing the whole way!

"Ha Ha! Come and get me!" Randamu mocked the two Leaf-nin as he ran away.

Shinachiku was beyond annoyed. 'First this guys shows up out of nowhere, then he makes the weirdest jokes I've ever heard, then he makes dirty comments about my _mom_, then he asks if he can date my _sister_, and now he challenges me to a fight and then runs away?! Hell no!'

The boy took off out of their room without a word, before Sasuke could say anything more to him, but as it turns our Sasuke was merely following behind the boy not saying anything, only observing.

Shinachiku, despite his age and inexperience, was doing a fairly good job of keeping up with the masked man, tracking him all through the village until he retreated into the forest outside the village's borders.

"Wait Shinachiku!" Sasuke demanded, "Stop and use your head for a minute kid! This person is obviously baiting you into a trap, he wants to lure you into a place where he'd have the advantage, don't fall for it! Jeez, I would have thought you dad and sensei would have taught you better than that!"

The boy paused before he passed the borders of the forest. 'Uncle Sasuke's right; I've been taught better than this! If I just run in there blinded by rage I'll be a sitting duck. I need to clear my head and focus.'

With a long, deep breath, he gathered his wits and entered the forest, Sasuke following behind.

The forest was totally unassuming; sunlight streaking in through the treetops, chirping of birds and chipmunks in the background, nothing out-of-the-ordinary whatsoever; in other words, the perfect cover for an expert ninja in hiding.

Shinachiku was nervous as he held his katana in his hand, and kept his scroll full of other weapons at his side. His eyes darted all over the place, scanning from tree to tree in desperate hope of finding his enemy. He looked left, right, up, down, and every direction in between, but there was no sign of the red and black lunatic.

'Wait,' Shinachiku realized, 'I'll bet he's using a genjutsu to camouflage himself.' He got his hands into the proper sign to release the illusion. "RELEASE!"

Nothing happened. 'Okay,' the boy thought to himself, 'this is getting creepy.'

It was funny; the boy had spent his whole life training and studying to be ready for exactly this sort of encounter, but now that he was here, much of that training instantly gave way to fear.

'Come on, get a grip Shinachiku! You did not train with mom and dad and Konohamaru-sensei, you did not work to graduate top of your class with honors from Shino-sensei just to choke up now!'

"You look scarred." A voice came from up in the trees frightening the poor boy. He snapped his head in the direction where the voice came from.

'Oh, sorry kid, I didn't mean to interrupt your inner monologue.' The voice now came from a totally different direction up in the trees. Shinachiku quickly turned to locate the source of the noise, weapon at the ready.

"You can go ahead and relax kid; I'm not going to hurt you..." The voice was not jumping all over the sky, every word seemingly from a totally different direction, until finally, "…much."

The voice came from right behind the boy. He instantly turned around to the face his foe only to get a massive uppercut that sent him up into the trees.

"SHORYUKEN!"

Randamu appeared where the boy landed almost instantly. His speed was truly impressive, only a few steps beneath Naruto's Flying Thunder God technique.

"Hey, nothing personal about any of this, okay kid? I just, y'know, have the take you in alive to my employers to get my money. But seriously, I can still get the autograph of your dad's book, right? Oh, better yet, you got any naked photos of your mom-"

"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"

The blonde haired boy lashed at the perverted enemy with an out-of-control fury. He hacked and slashed at Randamu furiously, but the masked man was easily able to either dodge all of his attacks or parry them with his own katanas.

"Wow kid, you've got some skill with a blade…but you should know that people do say that the larger a guy's sword, the more they're trying to compensate for something."

Shinachiku blushed in humiliation as he charged at Randamu again with no more success.

"Of course, I carry _two_ katanas with me and I sure don't have that problem. And if you really do take after your dad, the Kyuubi-enhanced sex machine, then I'm sure that you're not going to have any problems with girls either."

"Dear God, now you're making jokes about my dad's _junk_?! Are you _that_ much of a pervert?!"

"No more than the guy writing this fanfic. Like him, I'm just saying what I think would get a good laugh."

Shinachiku stopped and looked at him blankly before he just shook his head clear of awkward thoughts and focused on the task at hand.

"Look, I don't know what your game is, but-"

"Oh, GAMES!" Randamu suddenly squealed in excitement. "Oh I LOVE games! Hey, have you ever played _Ultimate Ninja Storm 4_?"

"Oh heck yeah, I got it for Christmas one year, it was aweso-_Wait!_ Who cares about video games right now?!"

"Sorry kid. Tell you what, just so there are no hard feelings, how about I let _you_ make the next move?"

Shinachiku was confused, "Really?"

"Yeah sure, why not?"

"Umm…okay."

The boy decided to shake things up a bit and got out his weapons scroll. He resealed his katana inside and released his bo staff.

"Oh, so you're both a Leonardo _and_ a Donatello fan eh? As you can tell from my swords I've always favored Leo more than anyone else…although I think most people who meet me would peg me more as a Michelangelo. Oh well, that's just them labeling-"

Randamu couldn't finish his sentence as the boy whacked him right in the face with his bo. This got the masked man suddenly mad. "I WILL NOT BE LABELLED!"

The two ninja dueled swords to bo, each doing fairly well, but the masked man clearly had the advantage. The fight continued until both of them found themselves back on the forest floor. Shinachiku got out some more weapons from his scroll, a pair of nunchakus.

"Oh, _now_ you're just copying me! I bring up Michelangelo just one time and you go ahead and-you know what? Screw it!"

Randamu then did something totally unexpected. He pulled out a brand new weapon all his own: a giant bow armed with arrows that Shinachiku barely had time to dodge.

"What the-Where were you keeping that?"

"The same place I keep all of my special gear kid, in my trustee magic satchel." He patted the side of his body as if he were gesturing to an invisible bag at his side.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing there."

"Its part of my Fourth Wall-Hammerspace thing I told you about earlier. I can literally pull weapons and anything else I want of pretty much nowhere."

"That's ridiculous!"

"No, writing a fanfic of this sort of ambition just because you got all bitchy about the pairings the original writer chose to go with to end your favorite story, _that's_ ridiculous..." Randamu suddenly turned to the side, almost as if he were looking straight into a camera. "Oh, sorry; too soon?"

Shinachiku kept dodging as Randamu shot more and more arrows at him, finding his nunchakus to be of little use. He threw them down as the enemy decided to go for his swords again…That's when the boy got an idea. He pulled out his scroll one more time and unsealed his twin sai.

"Yeah I should have known," said Randamu, "First Leonardo, then Donatello, then Michelangelo, _of course_ you're a Raphael fan too! Pick one turtle and stick with him, you two-timer!"

Shinachiku charged at the man in red and black just as he tried to stab him with katanas. He got the blades caught in the forked ends of the sais and trapped them in place. Second later…

SNAP!

The blades snapped apart, giving Shinachiku the opening he needed.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Three clones of the blonde haired boy appeared as the real Shinachiku delivered a powerful kick to the masked man. Two of the clones held him down while the other started making hand gestures over the real Shinachiku's outstretched hand. Chakra was forming around the boy's hand and was gradually taking shape. It was time to finally put all of his hard work and training into this one technique to real use…

* * *

"Alright son," Naruto addressed his son before him as they both stood in the dojo of their family's house. "You're a Genin now and Konohamaru and I have been talking…we think it's time that you learn the signature ninjutsu of our family."

"Huh? What do you mean dad?"

"You've read my book, right?" The boy nodded his head. "Then you know about the technique Pervy Sage taught me long ago when we went to go find Baa-chan, right?"

Shinachiku's eyes widened in hope as he realized what this could mean. "Dad, do you mean…?"

"Yes Shinachiku, it's time for you to learn how to perform the Rasengan."

"YAY!" Shinachiku could not hold in his excitement. Finally, he was going to learn his dad's most famous fighting technique!

"Settle down!" Naruto called out with polite authority. "Now then, your old man in going to be giving you private training here at home, while your sensei is going to be giving you the same training during the day, that way you can get twice as much practice and hopefully learn it a lot faster than either of us did, okay?"

Shinachiku nodded his head and he listened closely.

"Now, are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Yes."

"Are you prepared to learn this technique the same way your old man did?"

"Yes."

"And are you willing to stick with it no matter how hard it gets?"

"Yes!"

Naruto paused "…Fine; here catch!"

The man threw a water balloon at his son, who caught it in his hands.

"Um…what is this for?"

"Didn't you say you read my book? You remember my account of how Jiraiya taught me this technique, right?"

Shinachiku thought about it for a moment, and then he got a big frown on his face. "Aw man! You mean I've got to go threw all of _that?!_"

"Yes son, you do, if you want to learn how to do it right!" Naruto took a deep breath before beginning again. "Now, the first step is pretty simple; what you need to do is cause the water inside the balloon to make the whole balloon burst. Look!"

Naruto held a water balloon in his hand as it got bumpy and wild until the whole thing exploded, slashing water everywhere.

"Whoa!" the young boy said in awe.

"Now you try."

"What? But dad, aren't you going to tell me how you did that?"

"I wish I could son, but I can't. I told you I was going to teach you the same way Jiraiya taught me and how I taught Konohamaru, and that means that you are going to have to do most of this by yourself. I can give you tips and hints here and there, but the best way to learn this is through your own trial and error."

"Well, I already know from your book _how_ you did it, dad."

A vein appeared on Naruto's head. "Yeah, but there is a difference between reading how to do something and actually doing it in real life. Even if you already know the trick, you still need to put it into practice."

Shinachiku looked down at the water balloon in his hand and braced himself as he swirled the water around inside the balloon with his chakra. This was more of a test to get the feel of it first.

Naruto watched closely. "Think back to what you saw me do earlier son, let that be a clue."

Shinachiku stopped for only a moment and then started manipulating the water in multiple directions at once…Or at least he tried, but it wasn't doing it like he planned.

"See? It takes practice. Tell you what, it's already getting late, so why don't we settle in for the night and you and Konohamaru can pick it up tomorrow?"

"Actually dad," Shinachiku answered, "I'm going to stay and practice for a little while longer, if that's okay?"

Naruto smiled at his son. "Okay son, just don't stay up too long."

_Two Days Later…_

Naruto and Shinachiku were back in the dojo again ready to begin the second phase of his Rasengan training. The boy had picked up the first step fairly quickly. After rereading his dad's book he figured out the cheat his dad had used to do it, and then he just needed to practice the rapid hand movements to get it right himself. Much like Naruto had done with Jiraiya when he was just a boy, Shinachiku revealed his mastery of the first step to Naruto by sneaking into his parent's room and popped the water balloon right over his father's face. Despite them being married, even Sakura had to admit that seeing Naruto get splashed with water by their son was pretty funny.

"Alright kiddo," Naruto addressed his son, "time for the second step. Here!"

He tossed a rubber ball to his son who caught it.

"Now," Naruto continued, "for this step, you are going to do the same thing you did to the balloon, like so." The blonde haired man held up the rubber ball in his hand and it rumbled for a moment before it exploded in the man's palm. Even if he knew what was coming, the boy was still impressed with what he just saw.

"And believe me when I tell you," Naruto continued, "that this is going to be a lot harder to break than the water balloon."

Shinachiku had read about this before, but even as he tried it out for the first time, pumping in more of his chakra than normal, the ball _still_ wouldn't break. 'Wow, this is hard.'

"Good luck son, you'll need it."

_Two Days Later…_

Shinachiku did have to _really_ push his chakra beyond his normal limits to make the rubber ball pop, but when he did it was a huge source of pride for him. And now he was in the dojo once again with his father to learn the third and final step.

"Shinachiku," Naruto said, "You've come a long way in a short time. The first step you learned was about rotation, the second was about power. The third and final step you need to learn is about compression. Watch!"

He held a simple balloon full of air in his hand…nothing happened.

"Umm, dad, nothing's happening."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked with a smirk, "Well, let's take a look at my other hand then."

In Naruto's other hand a swirl of chakra appeared and quickly compressed itself into an orb the size of a baseball. Once again, the intelligent yet impressionable young boy looked in awe.

"So then," he started, "what you're doing in your left hand is happening inside the balloon on your right?"

"That's right!" Naruto proclaimed. "You need to rotate your chakra and maintain all of your power, but keep it all maintained into a ball, like a miniature typhoon in the palm of your hand. And when you do…" He slammed the Rasengan into a training dummy and totally obliterated it.

"So, son, shall we begin?"

* * *

This was it; the time had come to put all of that hard work to use in battle for the first time. His father had given him the added dare to figure the third step out _without_ reading about it in the book. It took him much longer than usual this way, but eventually he came up with the exact same work around that Naruto did as a boy, purely by coincidence. His father had told him to still keep training to one day do it without the need of clones, just like he himself did, but this way would have the do for now.

The one shadow clone worked to rotate Shinachiku's chakra as he poured more and more and more of it into the technique. This gave the boy the focus he needed to keep all of that power contained, until finally a swirling blue orb of pure chakra formed in his hand.

'Yes! Got it!' While his other two shadow clones held the masked man down, he slammed the blue orb straight into his abdomen.

"RASENGAN!"

Randamu was sent flying several kilometers across the sprawling forest. His momentum sent him through countless trees and other foliage, breaking most of his bones and leaving a very, very nasty scar on his chest.

Shinachiku did not do anything for several minutes as he starred at the empty whole in the forest that was made by the flying enemy. Then he heard a clapping from behind him. He turned to find his godfather clapping in an almost sarcastic manner with a mere smirk on his face.

"Not bad kid; looks like you really knocked him out," Sasuke said.

"Uncle Sasuke, why didn't you come and help me?"

"I wanted to see what you could do, and you didn't disappoint. Well, I guess you could make do with a bit more training, but to have mastered the Rasengan at your age, maybe even younger than your father…_that's_ impressive."

Shinachiku didn't feel wholly satisfied with that answer, feeling as if Sasuke was hiding something from him, but he figured he should pay it no mind for right now and just be grateful that he was still alive.

He looked back towards the direction Randamu was sent flying through. "He'll be back, won't he?"

"Possibly, but even with that crazy healing factor of his he still won't be likely to come back tonight, especially with how far away he flew. I'd say we can head back to the inn and get a good night's rest before we head back out tomorrow for the Hidden Whirlpool Village."

Shinachiku nodded his head in understanding as he started walking back the way he came towards the village and the inn. "Hey Uncle Sasuke, aren't you coming?"

"Yeah, but first I need to check up on one more thing. You go on ahead and I'll catch up."

Shinachiku began heading back until he was out of Sasuke's sight…But there was one thing that Sasuke wasn't aware of. One of the shadow clones that Shinachiku had made to hold down Randamu had not yet dispersed and so the clone remained out of Sasuke's range and kept it's chakra signature low to remain undetected. He watched from up in the trees as Sasuke began fiddling with something on his neck that he had hidden underneath his collar, a microphone.

"Test. Channel 3." Sasuke spoke into the mic trying to get a secure signal. "Randamu, this is Uchiha, do you copy?"

There was no response for a moment, only static. Then, however, that familiar loudmouth came through the speaker.

"Ow! Damn it! That Rasengan really friggin' hurts! Stupid Kamehameha wannabe! Or wait, isn't the Kamehama a ripoff of the Hadouken? Or did the Hadouken come after the Kamehameha? I can never keep those two straight."

"Enough! Are you injured?"

"Are you kidding? Both of my legs are broken, one of my arms is broken, and I've got a spiral-shaped scar on my chest that looks like something from a Tim Burton movie!"

"A what?"

"Forget it, Fourth Wall-thing again, long story."

"You're insane, you know that right?"

"No, I just _act_ insane to keep myself from _going_ insane…But thanks for the compliment!"

"How long until you're healed?"

"Within the hour, maximum. Should I head back to where you two are staying?"

"No, I told the kid to get some sleep tonight and then we'll head out again tomorrow."

"So how'd he do?"

"Better than I'd hoped; plenty of courage in him and to have learned the Rasengan already…I think at this rate he'll be ready when the attack comes."

"You mean back at the Hidden Leaf Village? It'll be happening soon?"

Sasuke sighed, "…Yes, very soon."

Up in the trees the clone had been listening in, then, frowning, dispelled itself and allowed all it's memories to travel to the real Shinachiku, still on his way back to the inn.

The young boy was overcome with shock, confusion, and fear, not just for himself, but for his family and his entire village.

'Mom…Dad…Hanami…what do I do now?'

* * *

Well there you have it! I hope the chapter and the fight was to your satisfaction, and I especially hope that the ending has you all hooked!

The references this time around mostly came from Randamu's mouth, naturally, but before we get into that stuff, lets address the flashback. In can any of you could not guess, Naruto's teaching his son how to use the Rasengan was meant as a direct parallel to how Jiraiya taught him how to do it in the series. It was admittedly a challenge for me to pull the scene off because Shinachiku could easily read all about his dad's Rasengan training in his dad's book. I'm still not convinced I really got it right, but at least now that power is established for the boy, because lets face it, if you are going to write a story focusing on Naruto's son, he'd darn well better know how to do the Rasengan!

I gave Randamu the magic satchel ability that Deadpool possesses in the comics, the ability to pull oversized weapons of other objects from seemingly nowhere, as it perfectly, and absurdly, fits in with his Fourth Wall awareness.

Randamu giving a Shoryuken to Shinachiku was another talent that Deadpool often demonstrates, especially in video games.

The joke at the end about Randamu calling the Rasengan and Kamehameha ripoff was an homage to the influence that Toriyama had on Kishimoto and other mangakas in the industry today. Him not knowing for sure whether the Kamehameha or the Hadouken came first is a real source of confusion to me as a fan. If anyone reading knows which one came before the other, I'd really appreciate it.

This chapter also paid off all of the TMNT weapons I had set up in Chapter 5. The TMNT references Randamu made this time were based on a gag from the recent Deadpool vs. Deathstroke episode of Death Battle, one of my favorite Internet show. In particular, his thinking most people would label him as a Michelangelo type and his degree of "I WILL NOT BE LABELLED!" was directly lifted from Death Battle.

In speaking of both TMNT and Death Battle, the use of Shinachiku's sais to snap Randamu's swords was inspired by the TMNT Battle Royal episode of Death Battle, and more directly by the Leonardo vs. Raphael fight seen in the animated TMNT movie from 2007.

The Tim Burton joke is a reference to a common motif many have noticed that Burton loved to put a spiral imagery into all of his films.

I do need to address one joke that Randamu made directly at the NaruSaku fans; this was meant to just be me taking a piss out of myself as a writer and an example of this character breaking the Fourth Wall to the extreme. It was only done for fun, I swear; the last thing I intended was to insult any of my fellow NaruSaku fans...we've been getting enough of THAT from some the canon shippers as it is! So, yeah, I hope you found that funny, and no offense in case anyone took it the wrong way.

Well, I think that's all I've got this time, except next chapter might be when the conspiracy really gets going, as the ending clues you into. Until next time, see you!


	9. Chapter 9--The Enemy Within

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with my latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure."

I know I haven't exactly been the most hasty of posters when it comes to this work, so I continue to thank you all for your patience and your support of me.

I really hope you all like this chapter because this is where the shit _really_ hits the fan!

Before I go on, I want to say that I went back and made an edit to Chapter 6. In the flashback scene where Naruto gets promoted to Chūnin, I wrote that he had already had his prosthetic right arm implanted. After double checking Chapter 699 (which I assure you was reluctant to do), I realized that this was a mistake, and Naruto has an empty sleeve of his jacket hanging limply, telling me that at this point he still hadn't gotten the new arm. Since the scene is supposed to take place after the end of the war for before Sasuke left the village on his redemption quest, I decided to change that to make it a little bit more consistent. I still like the idea of Sakura seeing his prosthetic arm as a symbol of the sacrifices he has made for her, and I think doing that with his missing arm works just as well.

Ironically, this brings me to another mistake that I made that I have chosen NOT to correct. From some of the sources I've read, in Chapter 700, Sasuke actually does have a prosthetic left arm to match Naruto's. After looking back at Chapter 700 (very, _very_ reluctantly), I couldn't really tell. We see him reach for his sword when he thinks he heard something, but I didn't notice any bandages on his arm. The reason I was so sure that Sasuke did not have a new arm like Naruto did was because of his design for "The Last: Naruto The Movie", where he has a limp sleeve with no hand sticking out, telling me that he still had only one arm at that point. (PS: As much as I HATE the entire premise and purpose of this movie (nothing personally NaruHina fans), I will admit that I am more or less okay with the character designs themselves, and will likely be referring to them either here or more likely in later stories set during the time Naruto and Sakura were dating.) The reason I have chosen to keep Sasuke with only one arm is because of the ambiguity it adds to his character. The missing arm can be interpreted in a number of ways: maybe it is a symbol of how broken a character he is, or that he has to work to earn back what he's lost, or that he may or may not be wholly trustworthy, etc. Either way, think of it as an AU possibility...like this entire story really.

I think that's all I've got, so with that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 9: The Enemy Within**

Naruto sat at his desk staring at the scroll that lay on his desk. He had tried every unsealing jutsu that he knew and even sent some of his shadow clones to the village library for extra research, but so far nothing has been working.

'Ugh! I don't get it! I can defeat Pain and Kaguya but not unseal a damned scroll?'

He crossed his arms and huffed as if he was still the same stubborn child that he was in his youth. He ha to find an answer to how that assassin was able to nullify all of their jutsu's that day, and this scroll was the only clue he had. And he needed to find the solution alone; heaven forbid he take it up to the Council, especially after what happened yesterday.

* * *

The Seventh Hokage was called into a meeting with the village elders, those who made up the Konoha Council. Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, both members of the council during the second reign of Hiruzen Sarutobi and the reigns of Tsunade and Kakashi Hatake, were still, somehow, alive and well and advising Naruto during his own reign. Their third collaborator, Danzō Shimura, was killed years ago by Sasuke Uchiha for actions against the Leaf Village to grab power for himself and for attacking the former traitor Sasuke Uchiha.

Since then a replacement had been chosen to fill in for Danzō. His name was Uragi Rimonō, an older, black-haired shinobi that left the village in search of enlightenment for several years before returning after the Fourth Shinobi World War. He gradually rose to a position of power in the village's government and while he and Naruto had never been especially close, he had earned Naruto's trust and showed him more respect than either of the other Elders did.

Naruto entered a meeting room and sat in a chair placed in front of a couch where the two ancient shinobi sat waiting for him.

"Ah, Lord Hokage," Uragi addressed, "have a seat."

Naruto did as he was told. He really didn't like having to deal with these old geezers very often, especially since they used to work with Danzō, but they've been through far more than he has and they both were friends of the Third, a man who always had his back and whom he greatly respected.

"So," Naruto started, "what is this all about?"

"Naruto," Koharu began, "we wanted to discuss some of your recent behavior over the past few days."

"Excuse me?"

"For starters," Homura said, "your decision to send you only son, a mere Genin, on a potential A-rank mission—"

"I thought we already agreed that this mission was approved?"

"Yes we did, and we did agree that Shinachiku was advanced enough that he could handle such responsibility," Uragi answered. "But when you first told us of this mission, you neglected to inform us that your son would be traveling to the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village without his Jōnin instructor or any of his teachers. Instead, you conveniently sidestepped the truth that Sasuke Uchiha would be taking the boy alone. We're all just concerned is all."

Naruto did not say anything at first, merely scowled. He knew that lying to the Elders would be a problem if they ever discovered the truth, but what choice did he have?

"Elder Uragi," he began, "I'm sorry I withheld this information from you, but Sasuke informed me that the best way to keep this situation as anonymous as possible to keep our whereabouts away for this mysterious new enemy's notice. Taking a full ninja squad would risk attracting too much attention. My bloodline is the only one that can open the seal that safeguards the Chakra Gem, and since my Hokage duties did not allow me time to take on such a mission myself, and my daughter is still a mere Academy student, that left my son as the best candidate."

"And yet," Koharu interrupted, "the Uchiha is himself married to another surviving member of the Uzumaki clan, is he not?"

"Well…yes, but they…well, they've been split up for about a year now."

Homura starred at him blankly, "How convenient."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Naruto, your grades have always been some of the worst of your graduating class, you have always been one of the most impatient and reckless shinobi in this village, but at your age and in your Kage position I still would have assumed that you were smart enough to recognize that something here is seriously out of place."

Naruto was getting very annoyed, "Please, do enlighten mean as to your meaning. And come to think of it, how did either of you even find out about this in the first place?"

Koharu interjected at this point. "I suggest that you have a discussion with your adviser about that. He can answer all of your concerns."

Naruto frowned hard, 'Damn it! Thanks for going behind my back Shikamaru!'

"Right now, we have other issues we need to discuss with you," Koharu continued.

Naruto raised his head in confusion, "Like what?"

"The existence of these Chakra Gems is troubling to us," Homura said. "There is no documented account of their existence going back as far as the days of Kaguya and the Sage of Six Paths. But if what the Uchiha has told you is indeed true, then their recovery is of paramount importance."

"Okay…so what's the problem?"

"Your son and the Uchiha—"

"His name is _Sasuke_," Naruto stated firmly.

"Your son and _Sasuke_ Uchiha only know the alleged location of _one_ of these gems. It is pivotal that the Hidden Leaf Village finds and collects _all_ of them as soon as possible before any of our enemies do."

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do. The mysterious enemy force that Sasuke told me and my wife about is looking for the gems too and—"

"We're not just talking about this new enemy, but our old ones too," Koharu interrupted.

Naruto suddenly got upset. "What are you talking about?"

"Any one of these gems is supposedly able to give it's user a Tailed-Beast level power. Put all seven of them together and that person, or persons, would have the powers of a god. Can you imagine that kind of power in the hands of Kumagakure, or Iwagakure, or Kiragakure, or Sunagakure—they could wipe us out at any time they wished!"

Naruto now felt disgusted. "Lady Koharu, I have worked long and hard to bring this world into an era of peace, we all have. The other shinobi villages are our allies and the other kages our friends, _my_ friends."

"And yet," Homura said, "let us not forget that the current Kazekage has had his history of violent, antisocial behavior and took part in Orochimaru's plot to wipe out the Leaf Village. As a jinchūriki he was a psychopath back then and even now is still not the most wholly charming and social of leaders. As a jinchūriki yourself, Naruto, you more than anyone know what people like him are capable of, yet alone with a Chakra Gem in their possession."

"Things are entirely different from back then…" Naruto suddenly stood up, "…And how **DARE YOU** talk about Gaara or any of my friends like that?!"

The Elders just sat there expressionless at the Hokage's outburst.

Naruto took a deep breath before he continued. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes there is," Koharu said. "We also wanted to speak to you about the recent retrieval mission one of your Anbu captain's returned from today that you _also_ saw fit to not inform us of…One of several if we're not mistaken."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Naruto," Uragi said after a long period of silence, "we have reason to believe that ever since the assassination attempt at your wedding you have been periodically sending top secret Anbu missions without our consent. Now, as I recall, after the assassin committed suicide before he could answer any of your questions you came to us requesting an investigation, one we refused to avoid depleting the village's resources. And now we have suspicions that Captain Odaku has delivered confidential information to you."

Naruto was careful not to show any emotion on his face, 'Shit! What do I say now?'

After only a second, during which he fiddled with the still sealed scroll he kept within his pocket, he responded. "Captain Odaku did not hand me any information that I have read or studied without informing you first."

Uragi noted the careful choice of words that Naruto had chosen. "I see. Well then, I suppose this meeting is adjourned then."

"What? But we still have the issue of his approving the cut in our defense funding in favor of schools and hospitals."

'Oh great,' Naruto thought to himself, 'Not another budgetary argument.'

"I think that we can discuss that at another time Homura. Dismissed."

Homura and Koharu stood up and bowed to the Orange Hokage as they left the room. Uragi stayed for a moment and looked at Naruto. "You're welcome."

Naruto scratched the back of his head for a moment. "Yeah, thanks for getting me out of another budget dispute. You really are the closest thing to a friend I've got on the Council."

"My pleasure kid," Uragi said. "I knew Master Jiraiya and your father, and when I left the village to find some new direction in my life, I always held them as good examples of what a true shinobi should be. And looking at you, I can see that their spirit lives on inside of you."

"Gee…thanks. But listen, those were some tough questions being thrown at me, including from you."

"We just want some answers that is all…as do you right?"

"Huh?"

"Naruto, you don't need to spell out all the details to me about what you've been doing with those secret Anbu missions of yours, but I am going to ask you about something else one more time…What was the _real_ reason you didn't you tell us that your son would be traveling alone with Sasuke Uchiha?"

Naruto paused for a moment as he considered what to say, but then he answered, "Because I wasn't sure who to trust."

"Hmm…" Uragi looked to be in contemplation for only a moment. "You're a splendid ninja Naruto…but just remember that as a member of this council I, like you, made a vow to always look out for what I felt was best for the future of this village and the ninja world. And anyone who stands in the way of that will regret it." He looked at the young man with dead seriousness, "…Anyone."

"…I understand. Thank you Uragi."

* * *

There was a knock on the Hokage's door. Naruto quickly put the scroll back in his pocket so no one else would see it. "Come in."

A middle aged, yet still attractive woman with short black hair and a black gi over fish nets came in. She had been the apprentice to Lady Tsunade before Naruto's own wife, and had served as her personal assistant while she was still Hokage. After Tsunade retired, she chose to stay on as Kakashi's assistant and now here she was serving Naruto as well. Suffice to say, this woman and Naruto were pretty close friends, the woman seeing him almost like a little brother.

"Excuse me Lord Hokage, but I have a quick form that needs your approval."

She handed the form to the blonde, who read it quickly before applying his signature. "Thank you Shizune."

She noticed a weary look on her leader's face. "Is something wrong Naruto?"

"Huh? Oh no, no, I've just got a lot on my mind right now."

"Shinachiku's going to be fine, you know."

"Yeah I know. Listen Shizune, could you do me a favor and find Shikamaru for me? Tell him that I need to see him in my office."

"Hai!" The woman left the room and shut the door behind her. Not more than ten minutes later, the lazy genius in the open white shirt, black undershirt and goatee came in.

"What did you want Naruto? This is so troublesome."

"I had a meeting with the Council yesterday and to my surprise they knew some things that I was trying to keep from them. When I asked them how they knew, they said _you_ were the one I should speak to."

Shikamaru merely groaned, "Yep, this _is_ troublesome."

"Shikamaru, why did you go to the Elders about my son's mission without telling me?"

"Because I knew you wouldn't do it yourself and they needed to know, just in case."

"In case of _what_?"

"In case this mission is more than it appears to be."

"Okay, you know what, why don't you just lay your cards on the table and tell me what's bothering you about all of this?"

Shikamaru looked almost incredulous. "_What's bothering me?_ Okay, sure. How about Sasuke's behavior during the assassination attempt at your wedding? I think he heard the guy say something that day that he never told us. Or how about that suicide pill that the assassin had hidden in his mouth. Why do you suppose the Anbu _never_ checked to see if he had brought anything to like that into a prison? Or now, how about this crazy Chakra Gem nonsense that we've never heard of before and we only do now because Sasuke shows up out of the blue, going directly to _your_ house to ask if he can take _your_ son on this crazy adventure against an enemy Sasuke _claims_ he doesn't even know the identity of?"

"He explained to me that he needed Shinachiku because only Uzumaki blood can release the seal guarding the gem."

"And yet he just so happens to be _married_ to another from your mother's clan, whom he just so happened to have 'separated from' since last we saw him, and their daughter is supposedly with Karin now, wherever she is…Sounds awfully convenient, don't you think?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hang on! Are you telling me that you think that my _best friend_ did something to _hurt_ his own _wife and daughter_ and now he's going to do something else to my _son?!_"

"No, at least, God I hope not. But use your brain here Naruto! Something about all of this just doesn't add up! Even a doofus like you can figure that out!"

Naruto stood up from his desk in anger. "You think I don't see that?! Of course something is off about this! But if these Chakra Gems and this enemy are real, then we need to find them before they do. And besides, I _trust_ Sasuke! He's the only brother I've got, and I know he'd never do anything to Shinachiku. Sasuke's past is behind him, and it's time everybody else in the world realizes that."

"Moving speech, really…but do you _really_ believe it?"

Naruto put his head down for about three seconds before he looked back up at his adviser. "Thank you for your time Shikamaru; you are dismissed."

Shikamaru turned around to leave, but stopped himself in the doorway. He looked like he was going to apologize…but then he just sighed again and left.

Naruto stared at the open door as he felt the scroll he kept hidden in his pocket. He didn't want to admit it, but some of the things Shikamaru said really were getting his gears turning. Was Sasuke hiding something that the assassin told him? Why didn't anyone double check the assassin once he was their prisoner? Where did Sasuke hear about these Chakra Gems exactly? Was it just a coincidence that he and Karin broke up just when Sasuke needed someone with Uzumaki blood? He felt the scroll inside of his pocket. Was there some sort of connection between it and the gems? And what about that warning Uragi gave him before he left that meeting, what was _that_ all about?

There were so many questions that were demanding answers. And Naruto only knew one thing for certain, "God, I need a drink."

* * *

At Konoha Hospital, Sakura was sitting at her desk staring at something that lay before her. It was a thin vial that contained a strange clear-blue substance. She had taken it to the labs and looked through all of her books but she could find nothing to tell her what it was…

…But she knew what it did, that's for sure. They all saw the effects of this stuff, whatever it was, the day she and her husband try to forget.

Staring at the vial, memories of that patient she saved yesterday came flooding back to her…

* * *

The pink-haired medic stormed into the ER where a team of doctors, nurses and surgeons were already working to keep the patient stable. As soon as they saw her, there was a relaxed seriousness that overcame everyone in the room.

"Where is the patient?"

"Over here," one of the doctors said.

Sakura walked over to the patient lying on the table. He was a twenty-something shinobi, younger than her and her husband, and he was struggling to breath.

"Have we rendered anesthesia yet?"

"Yes, m'lady, but he's barely responding," Tsuta said.

"Is it a coronary bypass he needs?"

"Doesn't look like it," one of the doctors said. "We haven't seen any clogs in the veins or arteries and he's still ready to go into cardiac arrest!"

"Damn!" Sakura quickly put on some rubber gloves, "Alright, we're just going to have to wing this one then!"

She let her hands glow with her chakra as she felt out the source of her patient's condition. It was difficult to find, even for a medic as gifted as her. But then again most medical ninja did not have her well above average chakra control.

Sakura eventually felt the source of the blockage, realizing that the reason that it was hard to find was because it was faintly spread throughout the patient's bloodstream, not concentrated in one spot. There was only one thing she could think of for a situation like this: the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique.

"I'm going to need several buckets of medicinal fluid and water over here, stat!"

As the nurses went and got what she needed, Sakura focused her chakra into a scalpel. She tried to make the incision…but something was blocking her.

"What the hell?!"

"M'lady?" asked one of the doctors.

"My chakra scalpel's not cutting; this can't be. I haven't see anything like that since…"

Sakura stopped in horror. This was exactly like the assassin that attacked them at their wedding twelve years ago! Any kind of chakra or jutsu attack was either deluded ore repelled, as if it were some sort of chakra barrier. Naruto had tried to get an investigation going on it with no success. And now, all these years later, this dying patient has the same thing!

She had no time tow dwell on the past though, someone's life was on the line. 'Right, we're just going to have to do this the hard way!'

Sakura called for a scalpel, a _real_ scalpel, and made a very careful incision into an affected blood vessel. She then wasn't sure where to go from here. On instinct she fell back on her old medical training and tried using her chakra to push trace amount of the medicinal fluid through the patient's bloodstream, figuring it wouldn't work…It did.

'No way! You mean that our chakra is worthless _outside_ this man's body, but it works fine on the _inside_? That makes no sense!'

But, again, she had no time to dwell on that as the fluid gradually drew out the cause of the patient's condition and the apparent answer to her questions, a clear-blue fluid of unknown origin found within his blood. The medicinal fluid served as a medium through which the unknown substance was suspended in the air and forced out of the man's body. Sakura had gotten a large portion of the fluid out and called out to one of her nurses.

"Tsuta, get me two vials, quick!"

The young woman did as commanded and Sakura filled the vials with a portion of the mysterious substance, separated out of the medicinal fluid to keep it pure and refined for further study. She then dumped the rest of the substance into one of the buckets of water.

"Another!"

Sakura knew that she had a long way to go before the entire mystery agent was out of this man's system. And so the operation continued for several more hours, until, finally, the man's entire blood system had been cleared out.

Sakura took a deep breath, relieved that it was finally over. "Alright, Tsuta, go ahead and heal him."

As her nurse used the Mystical Palm Technique to heal the scalpel wounds, Sakura ordered one of the doctors to take one of the sample vials down to the lab to study for an antidote. She didn't notice some of the doctors exchanging knowing glances at one another as they took the sample.

The second vial was still with her, and she stared at it with a mix of fascination and concern.

"What do you suppose it is Lady Sakura?"

"I don't know Tsuta, but we need to find out soon. I'm going to hang onto this sample to do my own research, just in case."

Tsuta had a curious look on her face, almost as if she wasn't too keen on that answer. Sakura didn't notice however, she was far too focused on the mystery fluid that lay within the vial in her hand.

* * *

Sakura was going to perform some experiments within her office to study the sample she got from the procedure yesterday, but she had been too swamped with work up until now. The doctors have also yet to get back to her with an update on the test results from the first sample. The patient himself had, to her knowledge, not yet regained consciousness from the operation…or so she assumed, no one gave her an update on that either.

She checked the time, it was nearly 12:00 PM. 'I guess I'll go meet Naruto for lunch…I hope he remembers that we're eating at that sandwich shop down the street today.'

With that, she pocketed the vial in her signature red dress, now with the red spiral of the Uzumaki clan encased within the white circle of the Haruno clan, and zipped up the pocket for safe keeping. After hanging up her white medic coat and clocking out to lunch, she started walking towards the exit.

"I wonder what Naruto is up to right now?"

* * *

Naruto was walking down the corridors out of the Academy, ready to enjoy his lunch break with his beloved wife. No, it wasn't going to be Ichiraku's this time, which sucked, but as long as he got to spend time with her, he didn't mind too bad.

Before then however, he needed to make a stop at the bathroom to take a quick leak. As the Hokage, err, relieved himself, he noticed the door open and a bunch of Leaf Ninja and a few Anbu walked in. Taking the stall next to him was Odaku.

"Afternoon Lord Hokage," he said as he took a piss. "Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get a tac team ready?"

"No, let's wait and see what it is first, probably nothing serious."

"Hai."

As the two men continued their business, Naruto saw even more shinobi and Anbu enter the room, some of them were starting to look rather large and armed for combat…

Naruto was finished by now and so he zipped up his fly and went to the sink to wash his hands. Odaku finished and took the sink next to him. The guys behind them took their place at the urinals…Naruto saw that they were just standing there, not even zipping their flies down. At least one guy had what looked like a line of sweat running down his face, as if he were terrified about something he was about to do.

"By the way Naruto," Odaku said, "I forgot to mention, good luck with your son, I hope he comes home safe."

Naruto got a very uncomfortable vibe off of how he said that. "Thanks…"

Then even more shinobi came in. The bathroom was way too overcrowded now, even for lunch hour. Many of them were not even lined up for the toilets; they were crowding around him at the sink.

Naruto, having grown up as the rejected monster constantly berated, ridiculed, and sometimes even assaulted by the people of his own village, knew an ambush when he saw one. Still, he was the Hokage now, so he might as well be fair.

"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?"

There was only a brief moment of hesitation before the first guy, Odaku, pulled out a kunai and aimed right at Naruto's throat. But Naruto was ready for it and grabbed the kunai and threw Odaku's arm aside before punching him in the gut. Another guy attacked, but Naruto took him out just as easily, and another, and another. But then they gained up on him all at once. Some of the ninja made a move for the pockets of his orange jumpsuit.

'They want the scroll.'

Naruto wouldn't let that happen; he used all of his strength to push these big, heavy guys off of him. He noticed one of them had a syringe in his hand, one that contained a strange clear-red fluid within. Be damned if he was going to let them pump him with any of that! The guy was grabbed by the legs and thrown up against the ceiling, coming down with a hard thud.

More guys made their move, with kunai and even swords! Naruto readied two swirling balls of chakra in his hands, no longer needing the aid of a shadow clone to do so.

"TWIN RASENGAN!"

The two ninja it hit were knocked out, as were the ninja standing poised to fight behind them that happened to be in the way. That was pretty much all of Naruto's attackers…save for one who was just now standing back up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Odaku put his hand up is a stop gesture while holding a nasty-looking kunai in his other hand. "My Lord, I just want you to know, THIS AIN'T PERSONAL!"

Odaku jabbed the kunai into Naruto's shoulder. He struggled through the pain to pull away the hand of his treacherous Anbu captain until Odaku jabbed the same kunai into his leg.

Naruto, grunting in pain, grabbed hold of Odaku and slammed him head first into a porcelain toilet, knocking him out.

"Yeah? Well it kind of feels personal!"

Biting his teeth, Naruto yanked the kunai out of his leg. Kurama was already working to heal the wounds, but for the moment the blonde's shoulder was still numb and his leg was limping.

He exited the door to the bathroom to see a small army of armed Leaf ninja arriving to apprehend him, weapons at the ready.

"Get on your knees and put your hands in the air! NOW!"

Naruto could barely process what was going on, but he knew he needed to get him and his family out of there, now! So, improvising, he used his one good arm to rapidly rotate his own chakra, pushing his power output to its max but not bothering with trying to contain it. The result was an uncontained Rasengen that essentially acted as a massive shockwave that knocked down, and in some cases knocked out, all of the ninja, giving Naruto time to limp away.

He used the sneaking and camouflage skills he had mastered while polling pranks as a child to evade the squads of ninja looking for him. Although he did notice that not all of them were after him; in fact, some of them appeared quite confused about what was going on.

Naruto was desperate, he needed to sneak past all of this and get to Hanami. But just his luck, ever though he, somehow was lucky enough to sneak past most of the ninja and get to the academic division, there were a number of ninja standing right in front of the door to the classroom Hanami was in, as if they already predicted he would come looking for her.

"So be it!" Naruto said to himself as he charged, his wounds healing enough by now that while his shoulder was still sore, the limping was mostly gone. He thrust another Double Rasengan at the ninja…only to see the chakra technique dissipate in their presence.

Naruto was horrified! It was that assassin from his wedding all over again!

The moment of shock gave the ninja the opportunity they needed to attack with punches, kicks, and slashes of bladed weapons. Naruto had to endure the pain as he was pressed against the door to the classroom. Getting a peak inside…the room was empty. Shino, Hanami, and the rest of the students were nowhere to be seen.

"No…no…**NOOOO!**"

A pulse wave of Kurama's chakra sprung out of Naruto, knocking out all of the ninja and even giving some of them slight burns, but Naruto couldn't have cared less

He had only one priority right now: find his family and get out of the village.

* * *

Sakura has left her office and was going to the main lobby of the hospital. She was anxious to get to see Naruto for lunch and get her mind off of the mystery vial she was carrying.

But before she could approach the front door, a wall of doctors, nurses, and a few standard shinobi, all blocked her way, then all closed in to surround her.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Lady Sakura," Sakura recognized the voice of the nurse who made her way to the front of the crowd…it was Tsuta. "I'm sorry m'lady, but we're going to need that vial you're carrying."

"I'm sorry, but I don't have it," Sakura lied. "Now if you'd excuse me Tsuta, I have a lunch date with my husband."

"I'm afraid your husband won't be making your lunch date…And neither will you."

Sakura got really mad and took a battle stance. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, I'm just giving you advice that would be in your best interest." Tsuta took out a kunai as did the other shinobi there, save for a few who carried scalpels and syringes instead. "Please m'lady, I really don't want to have to hurt you. Just give us the vial and come with us."

Sakura held her stance for a moment, multiple thoughts running through her mind. Then she relaxed and made a move as if she were going to go with them…

…And then with lightning-fast speed she slammed her chakra-enhanced fist into the floor, just enough to cause a miniature trembler that knocked many of the medical ninja to the floor.

Sakura made a move to beeline for the door, but some of the ninja got back up and engaged her. Sakura, always careful to carry a few spare weapons with her, pulled out a kunai and slashed and parried her enemy's attacks. Sakura's skill was incredible, taking on that many ninja single-handedly without the use of any backup or clones. But eventually someone did get in a lucky hit and slashed her leg.

"AAAHHH!"

Sakura fell to her knees and one of the ninja took the opportunity to lay a hard punch right across her face. They held her up while still on her knees, as Tsuta came up to her, now holding a syringe with a clear-red substance inside it.

"It didn't have to be this way, m'lady."

'No way,' Sakura thought to herself, 'No way in hell I'm going out like this!'

Her eyes glanced around until she noticed a fire extinguisher on the very nearby wall. 'That's it!'

With all her strength, she broke herself free of the one holding her, quickly pulled a shuriken out of her pouch, and threw it at the fire extinguisher, causing it to rupture and spray it's fluids everywhere, mostly at Tsuta, who was forced to her knees by the force of the spraying fluids.

Before Sakura made her escape, she pocketed the syringe with the red fluid, wanting to keep it safe since she figured it may be connected to her other cargo.

Her situation being what it is, she couldn't spare time to fully heal herself. So, limping, she ran out the door of the hospital towards the Academy where her family was, taking cover the whole way there to loose any more Leaf ninja that came her way.

* * *

Naruto must have searched the entire Academy by now; there was no sign of Hanami. But there was no way he was giving up on her. His nindo was to never give up, especially not on those whom he loves.

Having looked everywhere, with the aid of his shadow clones, he had found a safe place to hide near the front door to the Academy. There was no one around at the moment, which surprised Naruto greatly; you'd think that the front door would have more security. But then again, the rogue ninja were probably all out looking for him to make sure he never made it this far to begin with.

Tired, confused, and very depressed that his daughter was missing, Naruto just sat in his hiding spot until he could come up with a new plan…

…Then he saw something, or rather someone. A lone figure was making its way to the Academy entrance. He couldn't make out who it was at first, but he needed to be ready.

He waited on the other side of the door, kunai at the ready. Whoever it was on the other side suddenly stopped, as if they were expecting someone on the other side as well. The Hokage and the mystery person both readied themselves, though neither of them knew what the other was thinking.

Then one of them, no idea which, made their move and threw the door open. Each of them thrust their kunai's outward to stab whatever enemy was awaiting them…until they each stopped dead in their tracks realizing who each of them was.

"SAKURA!"

"NARUTO!"

The two lovers dropped their kunai to the floor and came together in a powerful hug, each one letting out tears, happy beyond measure that both of them were alive.

Neither of them could resist, their lips collided together as they both tried to find solace in each other…until reality finally did sink in.

"Naruto, what's going on?"

"I don't know. I stopped by the bathroom on my way to go see you. The next thing I know Odaku and at least a dozen ninja and Anbu are trying to kill me!"

"Same thing here; I was going to meet you for lunch when Tsuta and a bunch of medical ninja attacked me!"

A realization then came over Sakura. "Naruto, where's Hanami?"

Naruto looked like he was on the verge of crying, "I don't know. I searched the entire Academy already; she's not here, _none_ of the children are here."

"What?! Naruto we've got to do something! We can't just leave our daughter here!"

"Don't you worry honey; we're not going anywhere without out little girl with us!"

"You may not have a choice."

The voice did not come from either of them. It came from a third party that they hadn't noticed was standing in their presence. Upon hearing the voice they both turned to the source of the voice with kunai in hand.

They both relaxed upon seeing who it was.

"IRUKA-SENSEI!" Naruto embraced his old teacher in a powerful hug, which the old man happily returned. Sakura, a former student of his herself, joined in on the reunion.

"It's so good to see both of you alive," Iruka said.

"Sensei, what's going on? Why are my own ninja trying to kill me and my wife?"

"I don't know Naruto, I was just stopping by to visit you and see how you were holding up after yesterday, and I took shelter during all of the madness."

"Sensei," Sakura interrupted, "Forgive me, but have you seen our daughter, Hanami?"

"I'm sorry Sakura, I haven't. Shino and all of the children were lead to another location by Anbu escort."

Realization dawned on Naruto at that moment, "They're using her as bait. They know that as long as they have Hanami that we'll come looking for her and fall right into their trap."

"Exactly…and that is why both of you need to leave right now!"

"What! Sensei, I am **not** leaving without my daughter!"

"I understand Naruto, believe me. But there isn't anything you can do for her here, at least not yet."

"What are you saying?" asked Sakura.

"Get out of the village. Get to safety. Go find your son. Find out what this conspiracy really is. Then come back when you have a plan. That's the best option for you two right now."

"But Iruka-sensei…Hanami…my little girl…she'll be all alone. What if they hurt her…or torture her…or-" Sakura could not bring herself to finish her own thoughts as she broke down at what she and Naruto had to do.

"Sakura, they won't dare harm a hair on Hanami's head. As long as they have her, they have a reason for you two to come back. Besides, she's a terrific student with amazing parents; I'm sure she'll be alright."

Sakura barely felt any better…but she knew that Iruka was right.

"Here, I found these lying around the Academy. They should fit you both so you can sneak out of the village unnoticed."

He handed them both dark ponchos with hoods that they could use to hide their identities. Both of them put them on as they, reluctantly, prepared to leave.

"I used to do a lot of sneaking around the village when I was a kid," Naruto said. "It was to get away from the grown ups that would try to chase me. I know a secret route that can get us out of the gate without anyone noticing."

"Good. You'd two had better get going."

"Sensei," Sakura said, "if they find out you helped us, you could be charged with treason."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take for two of my best students…including the one whose almost like a son to me." Naruto smiled happily. "Besides, at my age what more do I have to loose?"

Naruto hugged his former teacher one more time. "Thank you for all of this. We'll be back for Hanami. Stay safe, sensei."

With that the two parents, brokenhearted expressions on their faces, took off in the direction of the main gate. They both knew they'd be back and hopefully very soon.

'Hanami,' both parents thought to themselves at the same time, 'your mommy and daddy are coming back for you, we promise on our lives!'

But there was also something else on their minds as well, 'Shinachiku…please be safe.'

* * *

The majority of the Leaf Villages' shinobi forces were gathered together in the Jōnin Standby Station. Nine members of the fabled Konoha 12-Sai, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, Chōji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyūga, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee and Tenten-were all gathered there. Konohamaru Sarutobi and his two former teammates, Moegi and Udon, were summoned there are well, as were Temari, Karui, Hanabi Hyūga, Mirai Sarutobi, and Shizune. Senior and retired ninja like Kurenai Yūki, the crippled Might Guy, and former Hokages Tsunade and Kakashi Hatake, were also in attendance.

None of them could believe what they were hearing. Some of them were in denial, like Konohamaru, Chōji, Kiba and Lee. Some were totally devastated, like Hinata and Ino, and some merely stood there in contemplation like Shino, Kakashi, and especially Shikamaru, who also had a fair mixture of guilt as well after that argument they had last time he and Naruto spoke.

Odaku, despite having a massive headache caused from hitting his head on a toilet, was yelling at all the shinobi to get their attention.

"Eyes here! Whatever your op is, bury it. This is level one, contact the other shinobi nations. Shut all pathways out of the village. All security intel goes to us. Scan all open sources: messenger birds, computers, mail, whatever! If anybody says anything about these two, I wanna know about it!"

"With all do respect, if the village is conducting a manhunt for it's own kage, then we have a right to know why."

It was Mirai Sarutobi, granddaughter of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, daughter of Kurenai and the late Asuma Sarotobi, cousin to Konohamaru, that dared to ask this question. She was not the closest to Naruto or Sakura, but he was a hero she grew up admiring and he had been her leader for much of her young life. Plus, she loved her cousin and he idolized Naruto.

"Because they lied to us."

Everyone in the room turned to see where the voice had come from. In from the other end of the room stepped Councilman Uragi.

"Lord Seventh Hokage, scratch that, _ex_-Lord Seventh Hokage and his wife both have vital information related to the safety of this village, the answers to a dangerous mystery that has remained unanswered for the last twelve years. Those secrets, if allowed to fall into the wrong hands, could be a disaster for the safety and security of this village. But they each refused to share that information with us."

Uragi took a deep breath before he continued. "As difficult as this is to accept, Naruto and Sakura Uzumaki…are now fugitives from the Hidden Leaf Village."

* * *

Wow! I sure hope you guys are still interested after that ending, because this was somewhere I've been interested in taking this story for a while now.

As far as references go, there was really only one major inspiration this time around, and that was the film "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The cryptic comment Uragi made before Naruto left the meeting was inspired by a scene between Cap and Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford's character).

The fight scene in the bathroom was directly lifted from the awesome elevator fight scene in that film, right down to Naruto's awesome line where he offers any of these guys the chance to get out before they all try to gang up on him. I really wanted to show Naruto be a badass and take out a whole bunch of guys all on his own, no shadow clones, just by himself. I merely changed it to a bathroom instead of an elevator because I'm not sure whether they have elevators in the Naruto Universe...That and it was an excuse to sneak in some scatological humor.

Lastly, the final scene where all of the shinobi are gathered together and told that Naruto and Sakura are now fugitives was based on the scene that immediately follows Cap's escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ where Pierce puts the exact same order out on him.

In my previous chapters I made the choice not to translate Odaku's name for you, and it was to save it for this moment. "Odaku," as I've come to understand it, is a Japanese word meaning "corruption."

But, at the same time, I've also introduced yet another new character as well, Uragi Rimonō. I cannot translate his name either because it is an even more direct translation of something, but we'll get to it.

I really struggled to justify Naruto and Sakura being forced to leave Hanami behind, a decision they made very, _very_ reluctantly. So I made it clear that they both desperately wanted to take her with them, but they couldn't because Naruto just couldn't find her in time. Plus, it leaves her fate, in addition to what is going on with Shinachiku, as another dangling thread of tension to be explored later.

Once again, I hope you've all enjoyed reading and if you have any theories or ideas about where this story should go next, by all means share them!

Until next time, see ya!


	10. Chapter 10--Suspicions and Confessions

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back at last with another chapter.

First of all, thank you all for your feedback from the last chapter; I'm glad that I got you all hooked and asking questions. And thank you all for your suggestions too.

Sadly, a lot of your questions will not be answered here, but don't worry, I promise that things will straighten out eventually.

Once again this chapter will contain a flashback, this time it ended up being a very long one. It, like the chapter in general, in mostly a character insight piece instead of being about action and fighting, but I think you'll enjoy it. It's my own take on something that surely must have happened during the time span shown in Chapter 699 but which Kishimoto never took the time to show us.

Well then, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 10: Suspicions and Confessions**

Sasuke had come back to the inn about an hour later than Shinachiku did. Thankfully for the boy, the innkeeper did not put up too much of an issue with how her guests just stormed out of the window to their room making such a large ruckus…they were ninjas, weird behavior was part of their job.

Shinachiku had been on edge waiting inside the room the whole time, kunai hidden on his person just in case. What his shadow clone had informed him of upon dispelling really had the boy confused.

'Why was Uncle Sasuke communicating with that crazy bounty hunter? What attack on the village? What the hell isn't he telling me?! I've got a lot of questions that need answering when he gets back-no! What am I thinking? I can't let him know that I know anything! Uncle Sasuke could kill me in my sleep if he wanted, with hardly any effort!'

It was at that point that the door opened up and Sasuke entered. Shinachiku hurriedly picked up his copy of his dad's book, pretending that he had been reading it the whole time Sasuke had been gone.

"Kid, have you been reading that book this whole time?" asked Sasuke. "You must have read that damn thing at least a dozen times by now. How are you not sick of it?"

"I think my dad's story is really cool, so are yours and my mom's. There are a lot of different kinds of stories in here too; stories about loss, bravery, sacrifice…" Shinachiku eyed his godfather directly, "…treachery."

Sasuke only stared emotionlessly for a moment, as if he were looking for some hidden meaning behind what the boy was saying, before he gave up.

"Whatever you say kid; let's just get some sleep before we head back out tomorrow."

Shinachiku did not get much, if any sleep that night. He kept a kunai under his sheets the whole time, worried about whatever the hell was going on. He could not get over Sasuke's suspicious behavior. Turning up at his house out of nowhere, inviting him on a mission to recover a mysterious all-powerful gem, and now he allies himself with a bounty hunter that just tried to capture him!

'Uncle Sasuke's not telling me something…and by the time we get to the village I need to know what that is…"

The next morning the two ninjas awoke, cleaned up, got dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast. Sasuke noticed some red under the boy's eyes.

"Hey kid, didn't you get any sleep last night?

"Not really; sorry."

"Well your loss; just don't let it slow us down. We need to be at the village within two days."

"Why so soon?"

"Are you as dumb as your dad? The sooner we get to that gem, the sooner we can secure it and keep it from this new enemy."

"Or hand it right to them…" Shinachiku mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." The two of them went back to eating their breakfast. "Hey Uncle Sasuke?"

"What is it?"

"I was just wondering, why didn't you ever agree to let Lady Tsunade re-grow your missing arm like she did for my dad?"

Sasuke stopped eating and looked as his missing appendage. He didn't answer for several moments.

"Because I felt I didn't deserve it; I still don't."

"What?"

"When the war ended I figured that I was going to spend the rest of my life in jail, and I felt I deserved that fate. Your dad and Kakashi-sensei saved me from that fate by pleading with the other Kages and the Daimyō, but I knew that there was a lot I needed to do." He paused and looked at his missing arm again. "My missing arm became a symbol of all I've lost, all I've done, of how empty and incomplete I really am, and a reminder that how much I had to do now."

"But don't you think you've done enough by now to earn growing that arm back?"

"…No, I don't."

Shinachiku took in the man's answer. He was checking for any signs of guilt, or lack of confidence, anything suspicious. If Sasuke still felt incomplete…then maybe he really _was_ hiding something dangerous from the boy.

Sasuke himself was becoming lost in thought. His mind drifted back to that fateful day seventeen years ago…

* * *

"ORDER! ORDER!" The Fire Daimyō banged a gaffe to quiet a talkative courtroom. The Daimyō had come to visit the Hidden Leaf Village to deal with the sentencing of a dangerous war criminal, one who had been a thorn in the sides of the shinobi villages for years, one who had now, finally, been returned to the village from which he had rebelled to face judgment.

The five kages were all in attendance for the event: Gaara, Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure, A, Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure, Mei Terumī, Fifth Mizukage of Kirigakure, and Ōnoki, Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure. But the primary host, and defense, was Kakashi Hatake, recently appointed Sixth Hokage of Konohagakure.

The courtroom chambers were filled with villagers, clan heads, and shinobi from the five villages. Most of them were anxious to see the prisoner charged and sentenced quickly as they all felt he deserved. Even several of those from the prisoner's own village were anxious to see sentence carried out. Guests in attendance included retired Hokage Tsunade and her assistant Shizune, Gaara's siblings Kankurō and Temari, A's brother Killer B, jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, A's right-hand man Darui, Samui and her Cloud ninja teammates Karui and Omai, one of Mei's chief Swordsman of the Mist Chōjūrō, and Ōnoki's granddaughter Kurotsuchi and her partner Akatsuchi. Guests from Konoha included Council Elders Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, Hiashi Hyūga, head of the main branch of the Hyūga clan and his youngest daughter Hanabi, Shibi Aburame, ninja of the Aburame clan, Chōza Akimichi, head of the Akimichi clan, Kurenai Yūhi and her team consisting of Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyūga, as well as her newborn infant daughter Mirai Sarutobi, the team that once belonged to her deceased lover Asuma Sarutobi consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi, the wheelchair-bound Might Guy and his two surviving team members Rock Lee and Tenten, the young Anbu member Sai and Captain Yamato, Academy instructor Iruka Umino, and Ebisu and his students Konohamaru Sarutobi, Moegi and Udon.

But the most important guests, along with the Hokage himself, were the prisoner's own former teammates. One of them was a teenage girl with pink hair and a diamond-shaped seal emblazoned upon her broad forehead. The girl, renowned for her actions during the war and for her exceptional skill as a medical ninja, looked extremely troubled by what was about to happen. She appeared almost heartbroken at the fate that may soon befall the young prisoner.

The other guest was a blonde-haired teenager with whisker marks adorning his face and with one arm currently missing. This boy, once ostracized as a monster due to the Nine-Tails spirit sealed within him since birth, has now become arguably the most famous and hailed hero of the ninja world. He currently looked troubled as well, as if he were concerned for the fate of his old friend but was working to keep his emotions in check.

The prisoner himself was a teenage boy with raven-black hair and missing an arm of his own to match his blonde-haired former teammate. He appeared completely emotionless, almost as if he didn't care about whatever fate would befall him today. Normally he would be kept in handcuffs for these proceedings, but the fact that the boy was missing an arm made that difficult. So, instead, his remaining hand was cuffed and the opposite cuff was attached to a belt loop on his pants. Considering that he was forced to wear a full straight jacket while in his prison cell, it was an awkward arrangement that he agreed to and, honestly, he had Kakashi to thank for the arrangement, and for actually convincing them to remove the seals they'd placed over his eyes so he could at least look his accusers in the eye with dignity. The boy was also under close supervision by Anbu guards, who were under orders to kill on sight if he tried using his Sharingan or Rinnegan during the proceedings.

Once the room was called to order, the Daimyō began the proceedings.

"This court is now is session. The accused, Sasuke Uchiha, last surviving member of the Uchiha clan of Konohagakure, is charged with desertion of his village, high treason for allying himself with the rogue Sannin Orochimaru and the former village of Otogakure, as well as the former criminal organization known as the Akatsuki, assault on the five kage's within the neutral Land of Iron, plotting to wipe out the Hidden Leaf Village, attempting to kidnap the jinchūriki of Kumogakure for the Akatsuki, murder of the village elder Danzō Shimura, and attempting to murder the five kage and incite revolution across the entire shinobi world. How does the defendant plead?"

"Guilty."

There were clear gasps of shock and surprise at Sasuke confession of guilt. Many of the attendees from the Leaf Village were especially shocked, but no more so than his two former teammates. Sakura was clasping a hand over her mouth as tears already threatened to spill out of her eyes. Naruto did not cry but he did look very sad. He made a motion to try and put his arm around Sakura as an act of friendly comfort…but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, it felt too…awkward, especially right now.

The Daimyō spoke again. "SILENCE! Let the records note that the accused has made a plea of guilt to all charges. Lord Hokage, as this young's man former sensei and his primary defense attorney, do you have anything to say?"

Kakashi, garbed in his Hokage robes and hat, rose from his seat and took to the floor.

"Hai Lord Daimyō. As you have said I have known Sasuke Uchiha ever since he was a Genin fresh out of the Konoha Ninja Academy, and in that time his skill and natural talent were quick to impress me. Sasuke quickly rose to become my fav—" the masked Hokage stopped to correct himself as he glanced at Naruto and Sakura, "—_one_ of my favorite students."

Kakashi knew that this next part was going to be tricky to get across; one wrong phrase could ruin any possible hope they had of saving the boy's life. "In the years that Sasuke was under my tutelage, I was quick to recognize a pride and overconfidence in him, no doubt a result of his clan's high status within the village, as well as an aloofness he displayed to those around him. But even more serious, the boy's mind was clouded by rage, a deep-rooted desire for vengeance against his own brother, missing-nin and former Akatsuki member, the late Itachi Uchiha. As his instructor I did everything I could to teach the boy that revenge was not the right path; that it would only lead to more pain and misery. I was concerned enough with keeping him from this path that I may have failed to pay proper attention to his other teammates, a decision I regret. And then the Chūnin exams came and Sasuke received a curse mark from Orochimaru. This ultimately fueled the unhealthy desire for power within Sasuke until, despite my best efforts to sway him, he made the choice to leave the village to join Otogakure."

The atmosphere in the room was uncomfortable. Everything Kakashi was saying was true, but it was not doing much to help Sasuke's case. Kakashi needed to find some way to salvage this. "Following that, the boy's life choices do speak for themselves. However, I would like the make it clear that Sasuke was clearly not in the correct mindset. Anyone as deadest on revenge as him would be thinking irrationally and at one point thinking in insanity, therefore his actions-"

"Objection!" It was the Raikage who furiously interrupted the proceedings.

"Sustained!" shouted the Daimyō.

"This boy is an S-class criminal who betrayed his entire village, joined two rogue ninja groups and who not only attacked myself and the other kages, but tried to kidnap my brother to have his tailed beast extracted! I will not stand and let that go unpunished!"

"Lord Raikage, you do not have the floor at this time!" the Daimyō objected. "However, your objection has been noted and will be added to the prosecution. Now take your seat."

A sat back down in a furious huff.

"Lord Hokage, you may continue to make your case."

"Arigato Lord Daimyō. As I was trying to say, Sasuke was clearly not in his right mind for several years, both his grief over the massacre of his clan and his desire for justice totally clouding his judgment-"

"The boy is insane, just like Itachi!"

The outburst came from Ōnoki. "Lord Daimyō, why must we waste any more time with this? This boy's actions against myself, the kage's, and the rest of the ninja world are those of a man who is mentally unstable and a threat to safety of all those around him; though that is not surprising given where his gene's came from."

There was an outburst of shock at the old man's harsh comment. Sasuke made no sort of reaction at the old kage's damning comments against his clan.

"Let us not forget," Ōnoki continued, "that this boy's brother was none other than Itachi Uchiha, the missing-nin who went insane and massacred his entire clan, save for this boy here, in cold blood for no reason. Perhaps evil just runs in the family."

Even more shocked gasped came out of the crowd, but Sasuke, even as they called his departed brother a psychopath, only hung his head in shame.

"THAT'S A LIE!"

The voice that rang through the courtroom belonged to the blonde haired teammate of the accused.

"Naruto!" shouted Kakashi, "mind yourself! This is official business!"

"Gomen sensei, but I cannot just sit here and do nothing while my best friend's life is on the line."

"Young man," the Daimyō said, "this court is barely tolerant of outbursts from the kage's themselves, but if you are allowed to speak out of turn again and you will be dismissed from these proceedings. Is that clear?"

Naruto sighed, "Hai sir." He sat back in his chair again folding his arms. Some of Naruto's friends felt embarrassed at what Naruto had just done, while others, like Hinata, pitied him. Sakura was sitting next to him; normally she would not hesitate to berate the blonde for having such an outburst in front of the Lord of the Fire Country, but this time…well, the poor girl just wasn't into it today.

"Your student has quite a temper on him Lord Hokage," the Daimyō smirked amusingly.

Kakashi sighed in exhaustion, "You have _no_ idea. Still, the boy means well, and he only seeks to support his friend. Plus he may still be feeling empowered since he just got promoted to Chūnin yesterday-"

Kakashi stopped when he noticed the irritated vein protruding from the young man's forehead.

"What is your name young man?" the Daimyō asked.

Naruto and many others in the courtroom, including Sakura, were surprised that the Daimyō was bothering to acknowledge him like this. Still the boy responded as if it were no big deal.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, my lord."

The Daimyō looked surprised to hear this. "Ah, so you are the young man who saved your entire village from the Akatsuki member Pain, and you completed several great deeds during the war, including stopping this boy from murdering the kage's while they were still trapped within the Infinite Tsukuyomi, correct?"

Naruto hesitated before answering. He made a glance towards Sakura, almost as if he was asking her permission to tell the truth, even if it might hurt Sasuke's case. The girl only nodded sadly. He paused only for a moment and answered, "Yes sir, I am."

"Well young man," the Daimyō said, "it seems that everyone in this courtroom owes you quite a lot. Due to your and Ms. Haruno's affiliation with the defendant I have gone over your personal records in preparation for this trial…quite impressive. I am aware that you are the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, disciple to the current Hokage as well as the late Toad Sannin Jiraiya, studied sage arts with the toads of Mount Myōboku, and completed numerous D, C, A, even some S-rank missions. I have to say that it is quite remarkable that a shinobi as young as you could achieve so much from such difficult beginnings, not even having any clan of his own to speak of."

Naruto actually found himself blushing somewhat at the sudden praise the Daimyō had given him. He scratched the back of his head in humility. "Oh well, all that stuff was nothing really. I actually did have a family clan but like Sasuke's they're pretty much gone now."

"Really?" the Daimyō asked intrigued. "Your file lists no record of your parent's identities anywhere?"

"Well, from what I've been told, the Third thought my life would be in danger if people knew that the Fourth Hokage was my dad."

Naruto sweat dropped as he realized what he had just said, but it was too late. He smacked his own forehead, "D'oh!"

The entire room erupted into disbelief. By this point a number of people in the room-including Tsunade, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and A-were aware of Naruto's true parentage, but most of the occupants in the room did not know. The rest of Naruto's friends that made up the Konoha 12 were all dumbstruck, some of them having enormous, over-the-top reactions to this revelation.

"Wha-Wha-WHAT?!" Ino stuttered in disbelief.

"Holy SHIT!" Kiba shouted.

"The springtime of youth lives in Naruto like I have never known before!" Lee proclaimed.

"Come to think of it, once you take away those marks on his cheeks, there is kind of a resemblance there," Shikamaru noted.

"Why didn't he ever say anything?!" Chōji demanded.

"Naruto…" Hinata's mind merely drifted as she took in this newly discovered truth about her longtime crush.

"ORDER!" the Daimyō demanded. Everyone in the room quieted down. "Regardless of this new discovery, young Master Uzumaki, you declared the Tsuchikage's earlier comments to be a lie. What proof do you have of this?"

"My Lord," Naruto answered, making brief eye contact with Sasuke while doing so. "Some time before the war started I traveled to the Land of Lightning to try and plead to the Raikage not to go after Sasuke, because he was my friend. He said no, but while I rested for my return journey I was approached by Obito Uchiha himself, or Tobi as he called himself then. He told me the truth-"

"Naruto!" Sasuke suddenly called out, as if he did not want his friend to reveal the truth.

"SILENCE!" the Daimyō demanded. "The accused will remain silent or be held in contempt! Naruto Uzumaki, what truth did the masked Uchiha speak of?"

Naruto took a deep breath and looked back towards Sasuke one more time before continuing. "He revealed that after the Nine-Tails attack on the Leaf Village, the Council suspected that the Uchiha themselves has used the Sharingan to take direct control of Kurama to make him attack the village. Technically that was true since Obito was the one responsible…but anyway, my point is that after that night the Uchiha were kept on close watch and forced to live in a segregated corner of the village. Because of this, the clan began feeling rekindled hatred for the village, especially since they were controlled by Senju-clan ancestors. So, the Uchiha plotted a coup d'état with Anbu member Itachi as their spy."

Gasps came from the crowd and they all took this in.

"But," Naruto continued, "Itachi was afraid that a coup would lead to a civil war and then another Shinobi World War, so he instead provided intel to his clan's plans to the Konoha government. The Third tired to negotiate peace, but that was taking too long and Danzō Shimura convinced Itachi that wiping out his own clan was the only way to advert war, to which Itachi made Danzō promise to spare Sasuke. But the clan suspected Itachi of acting strangely, so they asked Shisui Uchiha to keep an eye on him. But Shisui was against the rebellion too so he tried to stop Danzō, but that lead to his death and both Danzō and Itachi each getting one of Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan eyes. Shisui's death was covered up as a suicide and Itachi was labeled a murderer by his own clan. After that Itachi met with Obito, thinking him to be Madara, and since Madara was cast out by the clan for causing unrest during the village's founding, he allowed him to aid in wiping the Uchiha out, in return for sparing the rest of the village and Sasuke."

Everyone was listening carefully to what Naruto was telling them. Even Sakura was awestruck at Naruto's words as he revealed the true downfall of Sasuke's clan.

Naruto continued, "The night of the slaughter, Tobi did help Itachi murder the rest of his clan, including his parents. But when Sasuke came home that night and found all of his kin dead, he saw his brother standing over his parent's bodies. You see, Itachi had used Tsukuyomi on Sasuke to make him think that he acted alone, because he _wanted_ Sasuke to get strong so one day he could come after him and get vengeance."

Naruto paused for a moment. "My point, Lord Daimyō, is that Itachi Uchiha was not insane; no, you could argue that he suffered more than anyone that night. And Sasuke is not crazy either; maybe his brain was polluted with hatred and lies and confusion for a while, but I have seen and fought beside the _real_ Sasuke, Sakura and I both have. Yes he's made mistakes, _a lot_ of them, but he deserves a second chance. I can vouche for him, and if I you don't see fit to give him that chance…" Naruto smiled to himself and took off his forehead protector before continuing, "Then you can consider this my resignation from service as a ninja for my village."

Everyone in the room gasped at what Naruto had just done, but those who knew him best were horrified. Tsunade, Iruka, and most of his friends gasps in shock, Hinata looked terribly sad, Kakashi was speechless, Sasuke himself was looking up in fear, and Sakura looked like she was about to break out in tears.

"Naruto don't!" Kakashi shouted. "You just made Chūnin yesterday; don't throw your career away just for your friend! What about your dream?!"

"My dream? Kakashi-sensei, how can I ever be a good ninja, let alone Hokage, if I can't even save my best friend? Besides," he turned to Sakura, "I made someone a promise, and if I fail to keep that promise now, then as far as I'm concerned I don't deserve to be called a ninja."

Sakura couldn't hold it back any longer. She started balling out tears as her closest friend literally put his entire future on the shoulders of Sasuke's fate.

"Naruto…Why? You can't do this; you've come too far, you could loose everything…WHY ARE YOU DONG THIS?! WHY?!"

Naruto cupped his hand underneath Sakura chin and pulled her head up to look him in the eyes. "For the same reason I made you that promise, for the same reason that you worked so hard to help bring him home…I care too much about you." He looked back towards Sasuke, "Both of you."

Sasuke couldn't say anything. After all that he'd done, after all the pain he'd caused him, his old friend still believed in him and cared for her _that_ much!

'Naruto I…I don't deserve a friend like you…and I doubt I ever will.' A single tear streamed from the Uchiha boy's eye.

"Sakura," Naruto said, "I know that you may never feel the same way about me, but I want you to know that I will do anything to make you smile again…even if it's not with me."

Once again Sakura couldn't help herself as she pulled the blonde into a desperate hug, tears still falling from her eyes. Naruto, no longer afraid, wrapped his arm around her as she let it all out.

"Naruto Uzumaki," the Damiyō called out. Naruto broke up his and Sakura's hug as he turned to the leader of the Fire Country. "You seem to be a passionate and loyal friend to this young man, so loyal that you are willing to stake your own career on his fate and reform…" The Lord paused before cracking a smile. "I admire that."

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused.

"In times like these, in a world recovering from the suffering and mistrust of war, it pleases me to hear that such bonds of friendship can still exist in this world. Beyond that, your acts of heroism and valor during the war and your ninja career thus far have earned the respect of both myself and everyone in this room. For these reasons, I have decided to honor your request and leave the fate of Sasuke Uchiha in the hands of the Hokage."

Everyone, including Naruto himself, where dumbstruck at this decision.

"But Lord Daimyō-" A tried to object.

"My decision is final. Lord Hokage, do you accept the right to pass judgment on the prisoner, with the knowledge that any negligible action he takes in the wake of this will reflect poorly on you and your tenure as Hokage?"

Kasashi looked to Sasuke for a moment, then over to Naruto, which caused him to smile beneath his mask. "Yes, I do accept."

"Very good; you may now pass judgment, Lord Hokage."

"Sasuke Uchiha," the Hokage said getting the boy's attention, "in light of your heroic service in war and in light of Naruto Uzumaki's personal vouching of you, I hereby clear you of all charges against this village and the shinobi nations. I also reinstate your status as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village; however, you will be demoted back to Genin rank. You will also be limited on what missions you may be allowed to take and any actions you make outside of the village will require my approval first. Do I make myself clear?"

Sasuke, still not believing that this was happening, could only respond simply. "Yes sir."

"Good. Guards, please remove the boy's restraint."

The Anbu uncuffed the boy's hand and no sooner had they done so then his former pink haired teammate wrapped him in a hug. Sasuke, despite his relief to be free, still felt too awkward to accept it.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Sakura said.

"Y-Yeah…me too Sakura."

Naruto watched as his longtime crush instantly embraced his old friend. It stun, hard, watching this, but what else could he expect? He had finally fulfilled his promise and gave her what she always wanted, and he supposed that would have to do.

He was apparently so lost in thought that he wasn't prepared for said girl to embrace him in a tight hug once again, all the while saying "Thank you" over and over again.

Naruto, a bit nervously, wrapped his arm around her again. "You don't need to thank me Sakura."

"Yes, I _really_ do. What you did for him…I don't have words to thank you for that. You brought him home, you saved his life; you've risked everything-"

She was cut off as she felt the blonde haired boy lay a quick, innocent peck on her forehead, right where her seal was. "You're welcome Sakura."

He figured he should walk away before she tried hitting him, but she didn't, instead she felt that spot on her brow as if she were lost in thought.

Naruto made his way over to the raven-haired boy, who, unbeknownst to them, had been smiling at both of teammates during their exchange.

"Listen Naruto," Sasuke said, "I'm not, I mean, I can't believe you did all of that. You believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself…Thanks." He stuck out his hand.

Naruto took the hand. "That's what friends are for." But Naruto then leaned in, "You know that if you do anything crazy again it's gonna be both mine and Kakashi-sensei's asses on the line, right?"

"Yeah."

There was an awkward silence before Naruto spoke up again. "Hey guys, how about we all go out to Ichiraku's tonight to celebrate, just the three of us?! My treat!"

"Uh! Naruto, do you _really_ think Sasuke is in the mood for ramen right now?"

"Actually," Sasuke interrupted smirking, "it sounds perfect."

* * *

"Uncle Sasuke? Are you alright?"

Sasuke was snapped out of his nostalgia by his godson's voice. "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine, let's just get finish eating and then we'll continue east toward the village remains."

After they completed their meal, flapjacks with syrup, eggs over-easy, bacon, sausage and hash browns, with a side of biscuits and gravy, they checked out of the inn and headed east out of the village towards to sea, where the remains of the Hidden Eddy Village lay.

As they leaped from tree to tree, Shinachiku constantly studied the black haired man ahead of him, his weapon pouch at the ready for anything. It looked like Sasuke wasn't going to talk about what was really going on unless he asked him outright, and Shinachiku dare not do that for fear of loosing an advantage. One way or another, he needed to stay alert until they got to the village. And there, for better or worse, he was going to get answers.

Still, the boy did find his mind wandering to other things as they kept their pace. 'I wonder what's going on back home, or what mom and dad are up to now.'

* * *

Naruto and Sakura were about a hundred kilometers outside of the village. Thanks to their semi-inconspicuous disguises and Naruto's secret path outside the gate, no one saw the two fugitives make their escape.

_Fugitives_…neither one of them could believe it. After so many years devoted to bringing Sasuke, a missing-nin and a war criminal, back to the village, now the two of them were being forced to retreat for their lives while receiving the same label from their own home. The difference was that Sasuke became a fugitive because of his own bad choices, while Naruto and Sakura…well, they didn't know _what_ was going on. All they knew was that they were wanted now and their poor daughter was still stuck in the village going through God only knows what!

"Okay," Naruto said, "I think this is far enough for right now. Let's catch a quick rest and then we'll take refuge in a nearby town, renting a room under assumed names. Then the next morning-"

Naruto was cut off by the sound of his wife weeping. "Sakura?"

"Hanami…she's all alone back there…"

Naruto put his arms around her, "Honey, we both agreed that this was for the best. They're not going to hurt her as long as they don't have us-"

"And how do _you_ know that?!" Sakura screamed. "For all you know she could be getting chopped to pieces right now and Shinachiku's out in the middle of who knows where, while the two of us are stuck all alone in the woods!"

Naruto only starred at her grimly. "Oh God, Naruto I'm sorry! I didn't mean to lash out, I'm just so-"

"I know Sakura, I'm worried about them too. That's why we need to figure out what's going on so we can hatch a plan to get back there and save Hanami and our friends."

"And how are we going to do that? We don't have any clues, and evidence, nothing to go on whatsoever. How can we unravel a conspiracy if we don't even have a single lead?"

Naruto paused before he took a deep breath. "Maybe we do."

"Huh?"

The ex-Hokage took a scroll out of his pocket. "Yesterday Odaku came to my office and delivered this scroll to me. I been working to open it up, but all of my unsealing jutsus aren't having any effect on it."

Sakura looked confused, "What's so important about that scroll?"

"Do you remember the first time we tried to get married?" He frowned as he saw the hurt reaction on his wife's face as she recalled that memory. "Well, ever since then I've been periodically, say once or twice a year, sending what Anbu I could spare on off-the-books recon missions to find out whatever they could about how that assassin at our wedding was able to nullify our chakra as soon as we came in range of him. This scroll that Odaku delivered to me might finally give us an answer after twelve years. When my men attacked me in the bathroom, I think some of them were reaching for it."

Sakura was shocked, to say the least. "Why didn't you tell me about that scroll last night?"

"I don't know; I guess…I guess with Shinachiku gone, I didn't…I didn't want to burden you with something that would bring up bad memories. I know that's no excuse for me not telling you…I'm sorry Sakura."

The woman frowned, "It's alright; you're not the only one who's been keeping secrets."

"Say what?"

Sakura reached into her own pocket and pulled out the vial of blue liquid. "Remember when I told you I saved a man who was having a heart attack yesterday?" Naruto nodded his head. "Well, while I was examining him, I realized the only way to find the cause of his condition was to use my Delicate Illness Extraction Technique, but when I made my chakra scalpel, is dissipated when I came within range of the patient's body."

Naruto's eyes widened in understanding, "You don't mean…"

"Yes, just like the assassin from…that day. Anyway, I had to use a real scalpel to cut him open and then, not expecting it to work, I used my chakra to reach into his blood system and I pumped at least a quart of this stuff out of his blood."

"Wait a minute, so you're telling me that your chakra didn't work _outside_ that guy's body, but it did work on the _inside_?"

"Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either, but that's what happened. I filled two vials with this mystery agent, what ever it is. This one here I kept for myself to run my own experiments, the other for my doctor's to take to the lab…after today I'm guessing they probably destroyed the other sample."

"Jeez…" Naruto was at a loss as he took in all that Sakura just said. "Why didn't you tell me last night?"

"I don't know…I guess for the same reason you kept the scroll a secret from me. With Shinachiku gone, I was afraid you were hurting so I didn't want to burden you with something from the past…I'm sorry Naruto."

"So…that means we both kept secrets from each other that we encountered on our jobs, both having to do with the same thing, and we both kept them from each other for the exact same reason. Did I get that right?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right to me."

Naruto couldn't help but laugh a little bit, "Y'know, if we weren't just forced to flee our own village because of this, then this might actually had been funny."

Sakura, despite knowing full well how serious all of this was, kind of had to agree and let out a chuckle; but like Naruto, it was mainly just a tension release.

Then she remembered something else. "Wait." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the syringe she had picked up from Tsuta, still with the reddish liquid inside of it. "While I was escaping the hospital, one of my nurses tried to stick me with this. It reminded me enough of the blue stuff that I pocketed it for safe keeping."

"Yeah," Naruto remembered, "one of my guys tried to stick me with that stuff while they attacked me in the bathroom. What do you suppose it is? An antidote?"

"No, if it was an antidote then they would want to waste it on the two of us." Sakura thought for a moment. "I think its some sort of reverse serum."

"Huh?"

"It's just a theory since that assassin at our wedding used taijutsu only, but if this blue stuff were injected into a fully-developed ninja with average chakra reserves, then that ninja would likely become immune to an enemy's chakra attacks but still be able to use their own chakra against someone. Well, I'm wondering if this red stuff would do the opposite; if either of us got injected with it, then maybe we would _loose_ control to use chakra techniques, but we'd still be vulnerable to enemy's chakra. Either way, based on the man who's life I saved yesterday, the effects only seem to work on the surface of the skin…Hey, you're keeping up with me, right Naruto?"

"…Amazingly, yes."

"The question is how are we supposed to find out if my theory is right or not? I don't have access to a lab now that we're on the run, and besides, I think we should head towards the Hidden Eddy Village and find Shina—"

"No, I don't know if that's a good idea." Sakura was taken aback at what her husband just said. "Believe me honey, I want to find him more than anything, but his parent's are wanted fugitives now, meaning that if anyone comes after us than we'd be leading trouble right to him. Besides, Sasuke's with him now, he'll be fine. Thank God he came back to the village just in time to pick up our son before—"

Naruto had to stop as things clicked in his brain. He thought back to what he and Shikamaru had argued about in his office today. He said that he thought he heard that assassin whisper something to Sasuke at their wedding that he never told them, the same assassin who somehow snuck a suicide pill into prison with him passed the Anbu guards, one of whom tried to "stop" the assassin from biting down and just so happened to be one of the same Anbu who tried to kill him today. Then there was Sasuke coming back home with his story about the Chakra Gems, showing up at their house out of nowhere to ask if their son can go with him on an adventure against an "unknown enemy." He said that he needed Shinachiku because the seal guarding the gem could only be released with Uzumaki blood, and his wife, who just so happens to be from the same clan, conveniently left him in between now and his most recent visit, taking their daughter with her.

Naruto _really_ didn't want to admit it, but maybe Shikamaru had a point; maybe something _was_ off about all of this.

'No,' Naruto said to himself, 'Sasuke's past in behind him; don't get yourself paranoid Naruto, your son is going to be fine…I hope.'

"Naruto, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine honey. Anyway, Sasuke will look after him. As for that serum…I think I know a place that might have a lab we can use, and maybe get my scroll opened as well."

"Oh really? Where?"

Naruto took a very deep breath before he gave his answer.

"The Hidden Sound Village."

* * *

Back in Konoha, Odaku was addressing the squad of Jōnin before him. These recruits were the best of the best, the finest shinobi of their generation, and the ones who knew their targets better than anyone.

"Alright listen up!" Odaku commanded. "The nine of you have been gathered here to answer a call to arms. Councilman Uragi has chosen each of you to be part of a 10-man cell under my command. You have each been selected for this task because of your past affiliations with your targets. Normally a 10-man cell would not be necessary to track down two missing-nin, but in this case we are taking about a disgraced former kage and a master medical ninja with the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Both of your targets are pupils of two of the Legendary Sannin themselves, and one of them happens to be the son of a former Hokage and the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox. Alone each of these two is a formidable opponent; put together they have proven to be nearly invincible, even without the aid of their Uchiha associate. For this reason the insight each of you have into their mannerisms, ethics and abilities, as well as the bonds of trust you have in each other, will be paramount to the successful capture of these fugitives. I realize that many of you may have mixed feelings about tracking these two down and I sympathize with that, but each of you have taken an oath to protect this village and defend it against it's enemies. I also know that all of you have children as well; don't worry, I have senseis and guardians assigned to look after them while all of you are gone. So…do you all accept this A-ranked mission that has been given to you?"

The nine shinobi gathered in the room with Odaku all responded in unison. "HAI!"

"Very good; then meet me at the village gate and let's move out!"

The nine-person cell that had assembled for this mission all glanced at one another as Odaku walked out ahead of them. Their names: Sai and Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, Rock and Tenten Lee, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyūga and her husband Kiba Inuzuka.

All of them had agreed to this mission…absolutely none of them were happy about. None of them believed that this was real, figuring that there had to be more to it than they had been told. But one way or another, Naruto and Sakura were out there, and they needed to be found…for their own sake.

They all just hoped that they got to them before it was too late…

* * *

There you have it, another chapter of the sprawling (sort of) epic.

There weren't a lot of references this time; however, I'm sure you noticed Naruto smacking his forehead and saying "D'oh!" As a lover of classic "Simpsons" (i.e. the first ten seasons, a.k.a. 90s Simpsons), I thought that seeing a doofus like Naruto do that would be funny!

Also, Ino's reaction to Naruto's true parentage was an homage to Sheila Broflovski (Kyle's mom) from "South Park," who often has that same shocked reaction as her catchphrase.

The trial scene was a challenge to write and I figured it out as I went, which is part of the reason why it went so long. The gag of the guards handcuffing Sasuke's one hand to one of his pant loops was taken from something I've read online that real police officers might do if he have to handcuff a one-armed suspect.

The decision to have Naruto accidentally reveal who his dad was during to trial was done for comic relief. I figured that it would have to have come out eventually, and even though I knew that Tsunade, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura all knew by the end of the war, I did not think anybody else on that battlefield (besides a now dead Obito) knew the secret...Actually, I was always surprised that neither Sasuke nor Sakura had a more incredulous reaction to meeting Minato for the first time.

Also, I kind of like the irony of Naruto unintentionally stealing Sasuke's spotlight for a moment during his own trial. LOL!

I hope I didn't confuse anybody with Sakura's theory about the blue and red serums and their opposite powers. Long story short: blue serum means you are immune to chakra attacks and but can still use your own chakra on others; red serum means you can't use your own chakra, but you are still vulnerable to other's chakra...and both serum's effects manifest within your skin.

As I tried to figure out where Naruto and Sakura could go for their investigation, the idea of Otogakure just came to me as I knew Orochimaru had plenty of secret laboratories to conduct his numerous experiments, and as a fallen Sannin, maybe, just maybe, he could help open Naruto's scroll and/or have information about what is really going on.

Lastly, the ending scene. I thought that having all nine of Naruto and Sakura's friends be assigned to track them down would be great for drama. Don't worry, I plan on taking SilentRaider52's advice and getting into their own thoughts and misgivings about this mission in later chapters, as well as give their kids something to do.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I hope you all enjoyed it. Until next time!


	11. Chapter 11--Friends Stick Together

What's up, thesaiyanjedi is back again with another chapter!

This one might feel rather repetitive as it goes on, but I was trying to get into the back stories and emotions of all of these characters as they now begin their own roles in the drama.

Also, I wanted to say something else; I don't fancy myself much of an artist, save for the written word, but I am open to the idea of seeing illustrations of this story done. So if anyone out there reading this is also into doing NaruSaku fanart, please instant message me if you've got some ideas.

Well, with all that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 11: Friends Stick Together**

A squad of nine Leaf Village shinobi proceeded to walk to the village gate. They had assembled for one purpose: to capture a pair of missing-nin wanted for withholding information vital to the continued survival of the village. There was only one problem: the targets they were selected to go after just so happened to be two of their closest friends.

None of the nine wanted to believe that this was true, but they had each taken an oath of loyalty to the continued protection of the village above all else. Some of them were speculative about what they were about to do, others were heartbroken, but all of them were determined to find their friends at least to find out the truth.

Shikamaru Nara, current head of the Nara clan, former member of Team 10, later renamed Team Asuma after his sensei, the late Asuma Sarutobi, and adviser to now ex-Hogake Naruto Uzumaki, was deeper in thought than anyone. Ever since they were kids back at the Academy, he had considered Naruto a friend, one of the first of their peers to see him as something more than just the Nine-Tails incarnate. The had both been "dead lasts" back then, although in Shikamaru's case it was just his own laziness that got in his way; Naruto was just, well, an idiot back then.

But Shikamaru has stated in the past that there was always something about Naruto that made him want to follow him, which made him open to hanging out with the blonde even when outside of missions. After Asuma died, he in turn helped out Naruto when he lost his own master, Jiraiya. Before he knew it, Naruto had become one of his best friend's, just like Chōji. During the war, he fought at Naruto's side against the forces of Madara and Obito and, after his life was saved by the girl who would become Naruto's wife, and his father Shikaku tragically lost his life, Shikamaru made it his resolve to be there at Naruto's side as his adviser, the extra brain to help him make the key decisions needed as Hokage.

It is for this reason that he did not believe any of what Odaku was telling them. Naruto was a lot of things—moronic, hyperactive, tactless—but he could _never_ be a traitor. He thought back to the argument that they had earlier that day; he already regretted it, but now it got the gears in his legendary brain turning.

'If anyone is a traitor here it has to be Sasuke again…I just _know_ it!'

He remembered a conversation he'd had with his wife after Naruto and Sakura went on the run…

* * *

"I can't believe this." Temari said.

"Yeah, neither do I," Shikamaru responded. "That's why I'm joining the retrieval party to bring them back."

"What?! Shikamaru, I thought Naruto was your friend? He's the man who changed Gaara for the better. If not for Sakura then Kankurō wouldn't even be alive—"

"I know, I know, but that's also why I need to get to them before anything else happens. There's a lot more going on here then we're being told…I think Naruto stumbled onto something, and somehow Shinachiku is connected to it. I don't know what it is, but I'm not going to find the answers but just sitting around here."

"So what's your plan?" There was a clear mix of fascination and worry in the sandy blonde wind mistress's voice.

Shikamaru sighed in grief before answering. "Uragi is most likely going to put together a large retrieval party to capture a former Hokage and a master medical-nin, and most likely he's going to want shinobi who have in-depth knowledge of the targets to predict their every move as closely as possible, especially Naruto's."

Temari got where this was going, "You think he's going to single out the Konoha 12, don't you?"

"Yeah…well, nine technically since Team 7 is obviously not here. But anyway, he's going to want the advantage that we all share from our bond with them to bring Naruto and Sakura back in."

"But there's no way the others are going to be on board with this, I know those Hyūga and Yamanaka girls are going to be crushed."

"This is why I know I can count on them to side with me on this. This isn't about bringing in a couple of criminals, this is about all of us finding our friends and figuring out the truth."

Temari began to worry about something else. "What about Shikadai?"

"What about him?"

"He's going to not have his father for who knows how long and how should I explain this to him?"

"Just tell him the truth. Tell him that his old man is going to bring the Hokage home not to bring him to justice but to learn the truth."

"He really is a lot like you, y'know," Temari said grinning. "Smart, loyal…" Shikamaru smirked hearing her say this, "lazy, unenthusiastic, doesn't respect rank very well, not even his own uncle…" And with that his smirk turned to a frown.

Temari noticed this and gave her husband an embrace. "Hey, you're right, he'll be fine. I'll still be watching out for him."

Shikamaru's smirk came back. "Thanks babe." He laid a quick peck on Temari's cheek. "You know, I always felt like I owed Naruto something. I know that your brother's weren't totally happy when you told then you wanted to transfer to the village to be with me, and I think Gaara only OK'ed it because I was Naruto's friend and adviser."

Temari ruffled his hair a little bit and played with his goatee, "Well, I guess now's your chance to pay him back."

"I guess…God this is so—"

"Troublesome?" Temari finished his sentence for him, raising her own eyebrows in sarcasm while doing so.

Shikamaru only chuckled to himself and his embraced his wife and gave her a kiss, which she returned wrapping her arms around her.

"I love you, babe."

"I love you too. So, are you going to tell the guys now?"

"Yeah I guess so; might as well start with Chōji…"

* * *

Chōji Akimichi, current head of the Akimichi clan, served and trained beside his best friend Shikamaru on Team Asuma. He too was a childhood friend of Naruto's as they were all among the "dead lasts" while students at the academy. As they grew up, Naruto became a good friend of Chōji's and would hang out with him for fun when not on missions. Growing up alongside Naruto, he got to see the future Hokage grow up both in mind and body, into a leader he would follow into battle anytime. There was no doubt in his mind that neither Naruto nor Sakura were traitors, but then again, who was he to argue with the official story of the village's top brass? Maybe there was just more going on here than he knew about? He trusted that Shikamaru could figure that one out.

Chōji remembered how he parted ways with his wife after Naruto and Sakura's fugitive status was laid out…

* * *

Karui turned to her husband and scolded him, "You're going to go after them, aren't you?"

"Most likely, yeah; they're probably going to want people close to Naruto and Sakura to help bring them in."

"Do you really think that they've gone rogue?"

"No, no way. I've known Naruto since we were kids, he's a great guy; he's no traitor."

Karui stepped up to Chōji and placed a hand on his burly chest. "I want to come with you."

"No, I don't know if that's a good idea."

Karui was taken aback, "What's that supposed to mean? You telling me you don't think that your wife can measure up to the challenge. Samui-sensei taught me well; I was one of the best kunoichi in the Cloud Village before I ever even met you mister!"

"Oh trust me honey, I know how badass you are, I just get the feeling they may try singling out the Konoha 12 for this mission. Besides…"

"Besides _what_?"

"…I'm just thinking about Chōchō, that's all."

"Oh come on, she'll be fine. She's a very confident and self-assured young lady."

Chōji laughed, "Reminds me of someone else I know." Karui elbowed him hard. "Ow! Sorry!"

He then noticed Shikamaru walking his way, "Oh boy, I bet I know what he wants to talk about. Excuse me sweetie."

He was about to walk over to his best friend when he felt a tug on his arm pull him back, then a pair of hands cup his face as his wife planted a deep kiss right on his lips.

"Just promise you'll come back again, you big lug."

Chōji smirked, "It's a date!"

With that, the tall, burly, bearded shinobi spoke with his childhood friend, who shared with him his feelings about what was about to happen.

* * *

Ino Yamanaka, current head of the Yamanaka clan and member of Konoha's Intelligence Division, third member of Team Asuma, and the third member of her generation's Ino-Shika-Chō Formation, had been best friends with Sakura Haruno since childhood. The pink haired girl had been bullied as a little girl due to her large forehead, and it was the young and popular Ino that came to her defense, giving her a red ribbon to draw attention away from her "Billboard Brow" and telling her that it was pointless to try and cover up her forehead. Ino was raised by her father to embody the meaning of the bush clover, to represent blunt and candid love and to treasure the bonds that she has with her friends. That is why, despite often bossing them around, she has always been close to both Shikamaru and Chōji and formed the classic bond of trust among their three clans that cannot be broken.

It was this same treasuring of bonds that now made her regret all those years wasted fighting with Sakura over their shared crush on Sasuke Uchiha. 'Ino-pig,' as Sakura so often called her, had helped the pinkette gain her confidence to grow and reach the potential that she knew she always had deep down. But then, like so many other girls their age, Sakura became attracted to the raven-haired Uchiha and, upon learning that Ino was into him too, Sakura ended their friendship and started a bitter rivalry for his affections. It was not until after their fight during the Chūnin Exams that their friendship was at last rekindled, though they still seemed to bicker as often as ever on the surface.

Actually, Ino owed Sakura far more than she could ever repay because without her, she may not have the life she does now. When she was first introduced to Sakura's new teammate Sai, she found herself attracted to him, partially because something about him reminded her of Sasuke. When Sai had, not fully understanding, called Ino beautiful upon their first meeting, it sparked a slowly budding seed of affection for the pale-faced Anbu. After the war, following the loss of her father Inoichi, she had confided in Sakura that she had a crush on Sai, to which Sakura, in an optimistic effort to make amends with her old friend, set the two of them up on a blind date. As it turns out, the date went extremely well and both of them started dating after that, finally culminating in marriage with their son Inojin. If not for Sakura's actions, she may not have the family that she does now, and for that she would always be in Sakura's debt.

Sadly, her relationship with her best friend's husband, Naruto, was not nearly so positive in the beginning. Like Sakura herself, Ino used to think Naruto was a loser with no real potential, especially compared to Sasuke. However, then she got to see the boy's inner strength and unshakable resolve during the Chūnin Exams and that slowly helped him gain her respect and friendship. Hell, after his defeat of Pain she outright admitted that she could almost fall for the blonde if she wanted to. During the war, she also realized, through her father's ability to project people's thoughts into others, just how mighty Naruto's heart was as well.

Even since Naruto had returned from his training trip with Jiraiya, Ino had secretly championed him and Sakura getting together; in the beginning this was partially to get the pinkette off the competition for Sasuke, but primarily because she saw the deep bond that had formed between them and how much they really did have in common. She always knew that Naruto liked Sakura and she could tell, even if her best friend was too dense to see it for herself, that Sakura liked him too deep down. When they finally announced that they were dating Ino was ecstatic and, true to her sultry and flirtatious nature, saw fit to give Sakura all the relationship advice she could ever since, some of it less-than-appropriate in polite company.

Walking beside Ino was her husband, Sai, a former teammate and good friend of both Naruto and Sakura's in his own right. When he and Naruto first met they got off to a very rough start, because back then Sai had very limited understanding of human interaction and would constantly criticize the blonde for everything; that and his total lack of respect for both his and Sakura's bond with the traitorous Sasuke. But as their attempt to bring Sasuke home played out, the three of them did bond and they all became friends and teammates. In fact, Naruto reminded Sai a lot of his late brother Shin, so much so that the blonde inspired him to strive to become a more social individual, which proved to be just enough to impress the woman who would become his wife.

Neither of them could accept the truth of the mission they were about to undertake. Sai was quite sad that both Naruto and Sakura were branded fugitives, but poor Ino was brokenhearted over now having to bring in her own best friend. For his own part, Sai found himself in the same boat as Shikamaru, questioning a certain raven-haired former criminal that just so happened to now be in possession of his friend's son at this very moment of having something to do with all of this.

Sai recalled his efforts to comfort his wife just a while ago…

* * *

The pale faced Anbu wrapped his arms around Ino as tears of grief flowed down her face.

"Ino, beautiful, it's going to be alright."

"Alright? Alright?! Sai, that's my _best friend_ out there! Those are your _teammates_, your _friends_! Aren't you scared?!"

"…Yes. Yes, I am." Ino stared up at her husband upon hearing that. "As an Anbu and a former member of Root I was taught by Danzō never to show emotions for anyone. But this time…yes, I am afraid. I fear for them, for their son, for their daughter…But I also know that crying isn't going to fix anything, and so do you."

Ino continued staring for just a moment before she dried her eyes. "You're right; Billboard Brow would be ashamed of me if she saw me like this. Jeez, and it used to be that _she_ was the crybaby."

"Really, the Sakura I knew was always a ugly duckling with monster strength—"

Sai couldn't finish his sentence because his wife clobbered him over the head with her fist.

"Hey Mr. Tactless, that's no way to talk about your wife's best friend, y'know!"

Sai rubbed the newly formed bruise on his head, "Gomen, gomen, I should have known better beautiful."

…And that triggered a blush from the platinum blonde vixen. 'Damn it! Why do I always get flustered whenever he calls me that?!'

"Ino listen," Sai interrupted, "you and I both know that there's no way that Naruto and Sakura are betraying the village, but I think we both need to go after them to figure out what's really going on."

"Both of us? What about Inojin?"

"He can stay with Shikadai or Chōchō while we're gone; Temari or Karui can take care of him. Besides, he's old enough to know how to take care of himself."

"Yeah, he is; he's obedient, reasonable, professional, very motivated…but like you he can also be insensitive to others."

Sai was actually a bit flustered, "Well, he's managed to get along with the rest of his team so far."

Ino smirked, "Yeah, he's just lucky that Chōchō isn't insensitive about her weight. If he ever talked that way to her dad…" she suddenly grimaced as she pictured a very unfortunate fate for her little boy.

"Wait a minute," Ino realized, "Why did you say Temari or Karui? What makes you think they're not going?"

"My Anbu thinking; they're going to be looking for the ones who know Naruto and Sakura best to contribute something to the retrieval mission, which included both of us. Shikamaru is Naruto's adviser and both he and Chōji have been Naruto's friends since they were kids, right?"

"Yeah…strange, that sounds like the kind of thinking that Shikamaru would come up with."

"Speaking of whom, isn't that him and Chōji coming this way?"

"Yeah." Ino waved over to her old teammates who started heading their way. "Knowing him, Skikamaru's probably got a plan he wants to share with us, and I'm betting you two are on the same page."

"Maybe." Sai looked to his wife "we'll get Sakura and Naruto back; whatever's going on, we can help them."

"Arigato Sai," she took his hand. "Whatever happens, I've got your back…" The vixen suddenly got one of her flirtatious smirks on her face, "…stud."

Sai, even after over a decade of dating and marriage, could still be caught off guard by his wife's overly-developed sexual appetite. If he had a thousand ryo for every time he came home just to see her surprise him with a new piece of lingerie, roleplay or some sort of fetish, he'd be a very rich and _very_ lucky man…almost as lucky as Naruto, wherever he was now. Hence why he wasn't prepared for when she planted a passionate and sexy kiss on him…only stopping after her old teammates told them to go get a room.

* * *

Rock Lee, once the star pupil of Might Guy, was a nobody who could not perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques on any level whatsoever, and yet his goal was to become a splendid ninja.

When Lee and Naruto first met, the two saw each other as rivals, partially on the level of shinobi and partially for the affections of Sakura, who, again, only had eyes for Sasuke back then. In their first encounter Lee was able to defeat the blonde, which in turn motivated Naruto to get even stronger to defeat opponents like 'Bushy Brows.' During the Chūnin Exams Lee recognized a desire in Naruto to prove to his teammate Neji Hyūga that his belief in a fixed, preset destiny was not true and that we are all free to make of our live what we wish. He also saw the passion in the boy's eyes that match if not rivaled his own. This led to a profound respect toward Naruto that has never wavered over time as each has seen each other as a friendly rival to one day defeat but also as a loyal ally and friend that can be counted on for anything. During the war, it was Naruto who helped give Lee the strength he needed to continue fighting in the wake of Neji's death. In fact, with Naruto's support, Lee played a notable role both in the severing of Madara and Obito's connections to the Ten-Tails and in landing the final blow against Obito. Naruto was always there for him when you needed him, and likewise, he wanted to be there for his future wife, Tenten, in her own grieving as well.

Somewhat like Shino, Tenten, Lee's former teammate on Team Guy, was not the closest of Naruto's inner circle of friends, but as the boy grew up she easily came to respect him as a comrade, and at times has even worried about the boy's safety. By the time he became Hokage she had tremendous respect for Naruto, even if that respect wasn't as overt and passionate as her husband's. But he did owe Naruto one thing: when Neji died, it left the poor girl in a very dark place, and it was Naruto's support of Lee that, in turn, motivated Lee to be there for her when she needed him. Through that their bond was able to grow even stronger until eventually they each became husband and wife with one son.

There wasn't a shred of doubt in Lee's mind that neither Naruto nor Sakura were really what Odaku and the Council was claiming them to be. Naruto and he had grown too close as friends, and Sakura was like an angel to Lee for the majority of his childhood. He was always happy for the two of them when they started dating and especially when they got married; despite all the battles they waged to win her affections, if he had to loose her to anyone, he was grateful that it at least it was to someone like Naruto. Tenten couldn't be quite as sure as him, but she supported her husband and knew that their friends needed to be found, for their own sake if nothing else.

Lee remembered the agreement made between him and Tenten when all of this started…

* * *

"Lee, I know that you're thinking and I want to go with you."

"YOSH! But Tenten, what about Burandon, he will have no one to—"

"That boy's hot-blooded and determined beyond recourse just like his father. He can take care of himself; we've both made sure of that. Now no arguments; you're my husband and I'm with you."

Lee smiled, "It fills me with delight when the two of us agree on something."

"Shut up and come here."

The taijutsu master and the weapons mistress embraced in a passionate kiss, only breaking up when they heard a cough from beside them. They turned see Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino and Sai standing near them.

* * *

Shino Aburame, member of the Aburame clan, member of the former Team 8, later renamed Team Kurenai after their sensei Kurenai Yūhi, and currently an instructor at the Academy, was not the closest of Naruto's inner circle of friends, starting off believing him to be just a talentless troublemaker with no real future ahead of him. But despite that he became impressed with the blonde's progression, admitting by the time of the war that he had surpassed all of them and that he needed no reason to follow Naruto's leadership.

And yet, even though Shino did not want to believe what was being told to them about his Hokage, he still found his mind wandering. In the last few days he has sent his son, only a Genin and one of Shino's favorite, and most troublesome students, on a solo mission to find a previously unknown artifact of immense power with only a reformed S-class criminal as his guide. If Naruto was wiling to do something like that, then who's to say what else he might do? The insect master wasn't being negative, merely keeping his mind open to every possibility.

Kiba Inuzuka, member of the Inuzuka clan and fellow member of Team Kurenai along with his canine partner Akamaru currently at his side was, like Naruto, Shikamaru and Chōji, considered a "dead last" during his time at the Academy. But unlike the two best friends from Team Asuma, Kiba's friendship with Naruto began more as a rivalry. He found Naruto to be a loser and ridiculed his dream of one day becoming Hokage, even declaring that he was a better candidate. But after Naruto defeated him in the Chūnin Exams, in a very humiliating way mind you, the boy had earned his respect, even if they did constantly challenge each other over their own skill sets—even so, Kiba was always amazed at how well Naruto was able to keep up with him.

Unlike his pondering former teammate, there was no doubt in Kiba's mind that everything he was hearing about Naruto and his wife was complete bullshit! He has gone through so much and worked so hard to earn the life he had now that there was no way he would blow it now, much less take his family down with him. Besides…he needed to be there for Hinata.

Kiba now had to turn to his very depressed wife. If Ino was feeling brokenhearted over what they would now have to do against their old friends, then Hinata Hyūga was feeling far, far worse. As heiress to the prestigious Hyūga clan, member of the Team Kurenai and her sensei's most prized pupil, she was regarded as one of the most powerful kunoichi in the Hidden Leaf Village…although she certainly did not start out that way.

Despite hailing from such a powerful clan, Hinata was plagued from the beginning by a terrible sense of shyness and lack of confidence in her own abilities. Because of this, her father, Hiashi Hyūga, determined that the girl was not suited to become heir to the clan's main house, favoring her younger sister Hanami instead. After the failed attempt of a head ninja from Kumogakure to capture Hinata for her Byakugan that ultimately led to the death of her uncle, and subsequently a deep-rooted scorn from her cousin Neji, the girl then lost a duel with her own sister that was organized to determine whether Hinata really was worthy of the clan. This meekness and lack of confidence may have consumed her forever had she not caught sight of an ostracized boy named Naruto Uzumaki. His enthusiasm and unyielding determination in spite of all the pressures and neglect he had been forced to live under were an inspiration to her, motivating Hinata to better herself and train hard to become as strong a ninja as him, to stand side-by-side with him.

Hinata was one of the first of her peers to not see Naruto as a monster but as a lost boy with big dreams that desperately wanted to be acknowledged. She would always cheer for him from afar, being far too shy to ever approach him outright. Naruto, naturally, remained blind to these feelings, but always admired her desire to change herself and be acknowledged just as he was. But as they each grew older, Hinata's feelings evolved from admiration to her falling in love with the blonde. During Pain's destruction of the village, she confessed her feelings before nearly loosing her life in battle, which sent Naruto into a rage that almost caused him to loose his soul forever to the Nine-Tails. During the war, after poor Neji gave his life to save them both from the Ten-Tails, Naruto found himself loosing hope and giving in to Obito's world view, it was Hinata who reminded him of his nindō and restored his confidence. He was always indebted to her for that.

After the war, Naruto found himself growing distant from Sakura, feeling that with Sasuke finally back home that she would want to spend her time with him instead. So, remembering her confession, he decided to try and move on and asked Hinata out for a date. It was like a dream come true for the heiress…but she was no fool. She knew that Naruto was not over his feelings for Sakura, nor was Sakura over her budding feelings for him. She confronted him about this and the response she received disgusted her. He had said that he was giving up on her, that he needed to force himself to move on and give up his own happiness if it meant letting Sakura have hers.

_SLAP!_

That was the hard sound made as Hinata's palm made contact with Naruto's face. This person, this self-doubting _thing_ that was just giving up on what he always wanted was _not_ the same boy that she fell in love with! The Naruto she loved hated whenever anyone lied to themselves, and yet that was _exactly_ what he was doing now, she didn't need a kekki genki to see it!

And that's when she knew…she needed to let him go. Regardless of whatever a future with him would have been, if it meant seeing him bury his true feelings and live a lie with her for the rest of his life…then that was no way to live at all, for either of them.

She told him this, with an anger and emotion she had rarely, if ever, shown before and ironically that was exactly what he needed to hear to rekindle his real feelings. Things were said, thank you were made, hugs given in gratitude, and when he and Sakura did finally end up together, surprisingly she felt no regret about it at all, only happiness; much like Lee, she was happy that if anybody else was going to be with Naruto, thank goodness it was Sakura, someone she knew he loved. And sure enough, she and Sakura became stronger friends as a result; much like Naruto, it just wasn't like Hinata to hold a grudge against anybody.

It may have been rough at first, seeing the two of them together, but thank goodness Kiba was there to soothe her pain. And sure enough, the bond they shared together somehow led to something more…

The Hyūga heiress, walking with her husband's arm wrapped around her, was in deep thought over the discussion they had just a short while earlier…

* * *

Kiba saw that Hinata was crying, and he wasn't the least bit surprised. He wrapped his arms around his wife in a tight embrace.

"Shhh…" Kiba whispered soothing her. "Its okay, it's okay. Listen, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I can promise you that Naruto and Sakura aren't responsible—"

"I know," Hinata choked out.

"What?"

"I already know that there's no way Naruto or Sakura did what they are saying they did. The man I used to admire isn't capable of this."

"Then why are you crying so hard sweetie?"

"I'm just—I'm just…" Hinata broke down again. "I'm just scared. What's going to happen now? To them? To Shina? To Hanami? To any of us?!"

Kiba wasn't proud of it, but he felt himself getting angry with himself now. "Hey, settle down! Hinata, you need to be strong! For all of us you need to be strong, just like the girl I fell in love with who found the will to prove herself and overcome anything."

"But Kiba—"

"What would Naruto say if he saw you like this?!"

That did it. That was just what she needed. That was all it took to keep the White Eye Princess from falling back into her self doubt.

'Kiba's right; Naruto wouldn't want to see me like this…just like I didn't want to see him the way I did the one time we went out…Oh God, I'm doing it again.'

"I'm sorry Kiba."

"You don't have to apologize. I know that you're worried about Nar—"

"No, I mean I'm sorry that I'm thinking about him again. I don't know how you put up with me sometimes; it's not fair to you."

"Because I know how much he meant to you and that no matter how much we've been through together I can never inspire you like he d—"

The canine shinobi was silenced as a pair of hands grabbed his face and a set of lips clasped onto his own. Kiba, ever the animal he was, was quick to consume her lips with his own in passion. Neither of them knew how long they were like that, maybe a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.

After they broke apart, Hinata smiled warmly at him. "Silly, you just did inspire me."

"Hinata, I—"

"Shhh…now you listen to me, you're my husband and I love you. You're right, I do care about Naruto; I'd follow him into Hell if he asked me…But I'm in love with you Kiba; never doubt me about that." She planted another quick kiss on his lips. "And that's why I want you to come with me to go find Naruto and Sakura."

"Say what?!"

"That's right! Our friends are out there and they need our help. Naruto would never give up on us, and now we need to be there for both him and Sakura! Now, are you coming with me or not?"

"Damn right I am! ...But what about the kids?"

"I'll talk with my sister; I'm sure she won't mind watching them. If she can't do it, then I'll ask Kurenai-sensei."

"You're sure sensei can handle Ōkami; he can be quite a short tempered animal."

"Just like his father," Hinata smirked cutely. "Sensei could handle you; she'll do fine with him. Besides, Tsuki will be well-mannered, so it won't be all that bad."

"Yeah," Kiba agreed. "That girl's sweet, polite, kind of quiet, but she's got a wolf's passion in her heart…just like her mom."

Hinata blushed. "Thank you. So, is this just going to be the two of us?"

"Make that the three of us."

They both turned to the source of the voice to find their old teammate, Shino, standing next to them.

"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing."

"N-No, it's okay Shino," Hinata said.

"Hey man," Kiba asked, "what did you mean you'd come with us?"

"Exactly what I said. Listen, something about all of this isn't adding up, and I think we can all agree that the only way we are going to get answers is if we find Naruto and Sakura."

What do you mean something isn't right?" asked Kiba.

"I mean that in the last few days Naruto has sent his son on a solo mission to find some unknown artifact of immense power with only Sasuke, a reformed S-class criminal as his guide. And now he and his wife suddenly flee from the village for reasons we don't know about—"

"STOP IT!" Hinata yelled. "Don't you dare even think like that! Naruto and Sakura would never betray this village, you _know_ that!" Shino could swear that he could see Hinata activate her Byakugan for emphasis.

"Gomen, that was inappropriate. I only mean that there are questions that need answering is all."

"It's alright Shino," said Hinata, "But what about your son, or your students?"

"Bagu is in good hands with my wife; the boy's calm and serious-minded like me—"

"And creepy!" Hinata elbowed Kiba. "Ow!"

"And as for my students," Shino continued, "they have plenty of substitutes to fill in for me until we get back…And it looks like we're not the only ones plotting a retrieval mission; look whose heading our way."

They turned to see Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino, Sai, Lee and Tenten heading towards them…

* * *

The company of nine Jōnin had made it to the village gate, all packed and in their shinobi attire for their latest mission.

Odaku was waiting for them at the gate. "Good, all of you are here. I'm certain that none of you are having second thoughts about this, yes?"

The nine friends all exchanged glances at one another; all of them knowing their true objective was merely to find their friends and try to get answers, not to apprehend a pair of criminals…Still, they all agreed that it was probably for the best that Odaku, their leader for this mission, _not_ be made aware of their real plan.

Odaku took their silence as confirmation. "Alright then; let's head out!"

With that, the company of ten set out from the village gates to complete their mission. All but one of them had the same thought on their minds:

'Naruto…Sakura…hang in there you guys; we're all coming for you.'

* * *

It was evening in Konoha, the lights of the village shined brightly as the hustle and bustle of the both the old village and the metropolis that rose above the mighty Hokage Monument now slept.

But it was just outside the gates, on Training Ground 7, that seven children gathered together, all of whom were supposed to be asleep in their respective guardian's homes right now.

Within this company of seven there was: a boy with pale white skin, green eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair with a small ponytail, garbed in a black collarless suit with mesh armor underneath and grey stud earrings; a boy with narrow, dark green eyes and black, spiky hair tied up in a ponytail resembling a pineapple, wearing a dark outfit with a light-colored jacket over it and grey stud earrings; a chubby girl with dark-skin, amber eyes, brown hair that she wears in two spiky ponytails with the rest flowing into her back and bangs covering her left eye, wearing a sleeveless red shirt with white pants and grey stud earrings; a boy with black eyes and black hair kept in a bowl-style cut, garbed in a garish green jumpsuit, hand bandages, and orange leg warmers; a creepy-looking, fair-skinned boy with dark brown hair and his eyes concealed behind dark, round sunglasses, wearing black pants and a dark green jacket with an upturned collar; and two twin siblings, the brother having white eyes, dark blue hair, red marks painted on his face, small fang-like teeth, wearing a grey sweatshirt and brown pants, and a little brown puppy renting in his shoulder, while the sister looked exactly the same, except that she had brown hair tied up in two ponytails on opposite sides of her head.

"Okay Shikadai," said Inojin, "you called us all out here, so what's going on?"

"Yeah," Chōchō concurred, "my mom's not gonna be happy is she finds out I slipped out after dark to see you guys."

"Yeah, yeah," the Nara boy replied, "Sorry you guys; I wouldn't have called you all out here for something so troublesome if I didn't feel it was important."

"So hurry up and tell us what it is already, or else I'm going back to bed!" Ōkami shouted.

"Onii-chan," Tsuki pleaded with a tinge of shyness, "please calm down and let Shika tell us why we're here."

"Okay look," Shikadai continued, "as we all know, our Hokage and his wife, Shinachiku and Hanami's parents, have fled the village as fugitives and our parents have all been selected to go track them down."

"Yeah. And?" Inojin pointed out rudely.

"And, just the day before than Shinachiku leaves on a private mission with Sarada's dad. I don't think this is coincidence."

"Are you suggesting that Lord Seventh and Sasuke Uchiha are working in cahoots?" Bagu asked.

"Of course not! My dad is Naruto's adviser and my uncle is one of his closest friends, so I know he's a great man who'd never betray his village, nor would his wife."

"So what do you think is going on?" Bagu asked.

"I think…that the real enemy is within the village, and that Shinachiku is being set up."

All of the children gasped at this.

"Dear me, then we must make haste and unearth this conspiracy and then track down our comrade!" Burandon yelled with tremendous, err, youthfulness.

"No Burandon," Shikadai said, "we can't go after them without our parents and guardians knowing about it. And if I'm right, then this enemy, whoever they are, may put us all on lockdown from any activity out of the village, if they're not all watching what we're doing right now!"

"So what are you suggesting?" Chōchō asked.

"I'm suggesting…that we go undercover and investigate this for ourselves."

"How?" Ōkami asked, "We're just a bunch of ragtag Genin. What can we do?"

"Just remember you guys, every great ninja in history, our parents included, started out as nothing more than what we are now…students, Genin, kids. If they can do it, why not us?"

There was a cold silence among the whole group as they considered what the Nara was saying.

"So what is your plan?" asked Burandon.

"Well, that's what I invited us all out here to figure out tonight. With Shinachiku and Sarada gone, we may be the best ones to find out the truth now that our parents are off looking for Shinachiku and Hanami's parents—"

"Hey wait," Tsuki shouted, "where is Hanami? I haven't seen her since…"

Everyone stopped dead in shock. Hanami, wherever she was, had not been seen since her parent's disappeared.

"You don't think…" Chōchō couldn't finish her sentence.

"They're using her as bait just in case as a means to lure Naruto and Sakura back to the village," Inojin surmised.

"Most likely, Shikadai concurred. "Okay guys, this isn't just an investigation anymore, it's also a rescue mission…and it starts tomorrow."

* * *

That does it for another chapter, hope you liked it.

The only reference I drew upon this time was for Shikadai's line about why the kids can live up to the standards set by their parents, which I paraphrased from a similar line that Harry Potter says while training Dumbledore's Army within the Room of Requirement in the film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

I hope I've continued to wet your appetite for more and, feel free to share your own ideas about where you think this story should go next.

Until next time, cheers!


	12. Chapter 12--In Hiding and Pulling Pranks

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back with another chapter update!

For this chapter, I want to issue a little warning in advance because this one may not be my best work. For one thing, the tone is constantly shifting from dramatic, to emotional, to comedic. Also, there is a joke made at the expense of one of the characters that might irritate certain readers. I will also be doing something I have not done in a while and include songs in this chapter.

I had originally planned to cover all four of the current story lines in this chapter, but that just didn't flow the way I would have liked it. So instead, I am going to devote this chapter to the first generation, meaning that it will focus both on Naruto and Sakura's life on the lam and on their friends trying to find them, while the next chapter will catch us up on Shinachiku and Sasuke as they continue on towards the Hidden Whirlpool Village and on his friends trying to find Hanami.

I would also like to remind any NaruSaku artists that may be reading this that I am open to allowing illustrations based on this story. I do already have one image in my head of a recreation of the cover page for Chapter 515 of the manga, only this time with the characters in their fully-grown adult looks seen in Chapter 700 with two critical differences: first, all of they are dressed like they are ready to go into battle and kick ass, and second, Naruto and Sakura are both in the center of the image together.

In speaking of fanart, I've got a little treat for all of you. I have composed a series of rough floor plans for the Uzumaki household, which you can view at the following URLs. I hope you all enjoy looking at them: (NOTE: All of the below URLs can be found on thesaiyanjedi's deviantart page:)

. art/Naruasku-Family-House-Floorplan-Outdoors-509873355

. art/Naruasku-Family-House-Floorplan-Floor-1-509874960

. art/Naruasku-Family-House-Floorplan-Floor-2-509875593

. art/Naruasku-Family-House-Floorplan-Floor-3-509875823

. art/Naruasku-Family-House-Floorplan-Basement-509875978

I also realize that a lot of you are probably anxious to read about the moment Naruto and Sakura began their relationship in the first place. Believe me, I would love to write that, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it would be even stronger if I spun it off into it's own separate story, similar to what I did with "An Uzumaki Family Christmas." Tell me what you guys think if you don't mind.

Well, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 12: In Hiding and Pulling Pranks**

It was getting dark; the sun was setting in the west. A pair of hooded strangers had been heading northwards, leaping from tree to tree, for the entire night. Because of their hoods, naturally, now one would be able to guess who this pair of hooded individuals were. It was only if they were lucky that they would be able to see the blonde and pink locks of the two strangers.

The two of them stopped on the forest floor, close the northern border of the Land of Fire.

"Naruto," asked the pink haired stranger, "It's getting late. I think we may need to find a place to rest for the night."

"Yeah, you may be right," responded the blonde haired stranger. "If I remember right, I think that there's a small village just ahead, we can maybe find an inn to rest in tonight if we both go by assumed names."

"What if somebody recognizes us?"

"Let me worry about that if it comes up."

The couple made it to the village by nightfall. By that time it had started raining in that part of the Fire Country so there weren't very many civilians outdoors after dark. Those people that were out appeared less than savory, to say the least. Because of the rain, the dirt road running through the small village was soaking wet, splashing mud over the tail ends of their hoods and clothes. It was the kind of village where people would go to hide if they didn't wish to be found, and yet both of them felt like eyeballs were watching their every move nonetheless. It wasn't helped by the size of the few buildings there were in this place, tall enough to make two strangers on the run feel as though they were looming in over them.

Naruto and Sakura made it to the inn soon enough, both rushing inside to get out of the rain. Though they were relieved to get indoors, both of them knew better than to take off their hoods. Naruto, keeping his head as low as he could to hide his face, approached the innkeeper at his desk as several of the other guests, many of them clearly drunk, stocked around the 1st floor pub.

"Excuse me, sir?" Naruto called to the innkeeper.

"Good evening master sir," the innkeeper said in a polite manner to his newest guest. "How may I be of service this evening?"

"My wife and I would like a room for the night. Just a place to stay before we head out again tomorrow morning."

"Oh of course sir. Always a pleasure to welcome new guests. Are you two passing through on your honeymoon by any chance?"

Both of them blushed in some childish sense of embarrassment.

"Ah, no, no we're not; already had our honeymoon," Sakura interrupted, keeping her own hood low as well to avoid recognition.

"Oh I see, so is this a vacation of some sort then?"

Naruto answered this time, "Let's just say that we decided that we both needed to get out of town for a little while and now we need to pay a visit to an old friend."

The innkeeper noticed the tone of Naruto's voice and figured he shouldn't press the issue any further. "Very good sir. Now then," the innkeeper got out the ledger to check both of them in, "we currently have a room large enough for two upstairs, one bed for couples, if you catch my meaning. It's 200 ryo each for one night's stay, and I shall need to know both of your names."

Husband and wife only glanced at each other for just a moment. "My name is…" Naruto had to think really hard, but only for a moment as he went with the first name that came to his mind. "…Minato. Yes, Minato…Sarutobi. And this is my wife…Kushina."

"Hmm," the innkeeper contemplated, "you know, you two have the exact same first names as the Fourth Hokage and his wife."

"Yeah…we get that a lot."

The innkeeper took both of their names down and gave them the key to their room as Naruto paid him 400 ryo. "Alright sir, you're both signed in. Your room in 203 upstairs, and feel free to come down for food and drink any time you wish…But please try to keep any late night festivities to a minimum, these walls are only so thick."

The couple blushed again, this time much deeper red than before.

"T-Thank you for you hospitality," Sakura stuttered out, a vein appearing on her forehead. 'Jeez! Even when I'm on the lam and using an assumed name I _still_ can't escape it!'

They were both about the head upstairs when they noticed a pair of posters hanging on the wall. They were wanted posters, with their faces on them!

"Nar—Minato!" Sakura whispered under her breath sharply to get his attention. She pointed him to the wanted posters.

'Oh _shit_!' That was the first thought that popped into the former Hokage's mind.

"Yeah, real shame," the innkeeper said. "The Seventh Hokage was the hero of the entire Fire Country only a day ago, and today it's all over the news that he and his wife have withheld information pivotal to the survival of his village and they both get branded as traitors. Word has it that their son is out there somewhere on a mission right now; poor kid probably has no idea about any of this yet."

Poor Sakura hung her head low, really low; fighting every urge in her body to let her tears fall again. 'Shinachiku…Hanami…what you must think about us. Mark my words we're going to fix this, and then your parents are coming for both of you.'

Naruto wasn't feeling much better. 'When Shinachiku hears about this he's going to be devastated. And Hanami…no, no I don't ever want to think about what she's going through right now! Just hang in there kids, mom and dad are going to get to the bottom of this, and then we're going to find both of you, that's a promise of a lifetime!'

"Umm…folks? Are you two alright?"

The innkeeper's question snapped both of them out of their funk.

"Oh, sorry about that." Naruto said. "Say, is there a reward out on the Hokage and his wife?"

"Looking to collect, huh? Get in line, nearly everyone in here has got their eyes on that reward."

Naruto stole a very quick glace at the rough, dirty, unkempt mugs on all of the bar patrons around them, some of them looking pretty heavily armed.

"How much?"

"The bingo book has Uzumaki listed at 40,000,000,000 ryo.

"_WHAT?!"_

Sakura stepped in to stop her husband before he did anything to break their cover. "Forgive him, he's just shocked that the bounty is so high; he's an easily excitable doofus that way."

"Oh, it's understandable; we all think that bounty is immense. Heck, his wife is listed at 30,000,000,000 ryo."

"_WHAT?!"_

Now it was Naruto's turn to stop his wife from blowing their cover. "Sorry about her, she's been known to get emotional too when she gets excited. We'll just go up to our room now. Thanks for everything."

"You're most welcome my masters," said the innkeeper. "And please, let me know if there is anything else you require. Complementary breakfast is served at 8 am."

"Thank you!" was all Naruto said as he and Sakura went upstairs.

As soon as they were out of eyesight, the innkeeper turned to his assistant.

"Was it them?" the assistant asked.

"Oh definitely; those cloaks they were wearing weren't fooling anybody."

"You'd think that a couple of shinobi like them would be better at covering their tracks and keeping a low profile."

"Normally they probably are, but I guess they're both a bit…off right now, as if too much is on their minds to the point that their judgment is in whack…or some crap like that, I don't know."

"Should we apprehend them now?"

"Are you kidding? An ex-Hokage and a master medical ninja? Even the toughest guys here would be dead before they made a move."

"So how are we going to collect the reward then?"

The innkeeper thought about it for a moment. "There's a Leaf Village Anbu who has often stayed here while on black ops missions before. Let me send a message to him; word has it that he's leading a retrieval mission to capture those two. I'm sure he'll put in a good word to the village and make sure we get paid."

"What about them?" the assistant gestured upstairs.

"For now be vigilant, but don't make a move; we can't let them know we suspect them of anything."

* * *

Up in their room, Naruto was removing his cloak as Sakura sat on the bed, her cloak already off.

"Way to nearly blow our cover, _Minato!_"

"Oh sorry, _Kushina_, but I wasn't the only one who lost their shit out there at the moment they found out they had a massive bounty on their head…And don't yell at me for saying this out loud because I already put a silencing jutsu on the room so nobody can hear us!"

"Well, at least that's _one_ smart thing you've done since we got here!" Sakura rubbed her forehead in frustration. "I mean, really, you gave us your _parent's_ names, and the Third's last name, and you didn't think that may attract attention?!"

"Sorry, okay! I said the first thing that came into my head!"

"Well next time, _I'm_ coming up with the aliases!"

"Fine, by all means! Just don't come to me for any more good ideas."

"_Good ideas?_ It was _your_ idea to hide that damn scroll of yours that has everyone after us in the first place!"

"Was that why? Or could it have been because _you_ decided to study that blue serum you pumped out of that man?"

"I was saving somebody's life!"

"And I was working to discover a secret to secure the safety of you, the kids, and the entire village!"

"Secure our kid's safety?! Are you kidding?! You're the one who told Sasuke it was okay to let him take our son of some wild goose chase after he shows up at our house from totally nowhere!"

"I didn't see _you_ putting your foot down when I agreed to that!"

"As if there is any hope in stopping you from doing anything once you set your mind on it!"

"Is that the reason, or is it because you couldn't bring yourself to say no to _him_?!"

Sakura stood up in defiance at that accusation. "Excuse me?! _What_ did you just say?!"

"You heard what I said! Ever since we were kids you've always sided with Sasuke about everything and never gave a _damn_ about me! Even after all this time I…I…"

And with that, Naruto Uzumaki, the Child of Prophecy, Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, broke down and cried, _hard_.

Sakura could only stand there and watch at what she was seeing. A minute ago both of them were yelling at each other at the top of their lungs, the worst fight they've had in a long time. Then her husband accuses her of still having feelings for their best friend, even after all this time. And now here he was balling his eyes out for seemingly no reason.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura tried to get his attention, every ounce of anger she had just a moment ago now completely wiped away and replaced with worry and fear.

She didn't get any response, save for his continued sobbing and shaking his own head still in his hands, anything he could do to avoid making eye contact with her.

"Naruto, please, I'm sorry for what I said. I don't know what I was thinking. I've just been so angry and frustrated and scared that I—"

"I'm a fool."

Sakura stopped when she heard this. "W-What?"

Naruto barely gained enough of his composure back to make what he was saying clear. "I used to have nightmares. I had almost everything I ever wanted: I was Hokage, yes, but more important I had you, the kids, our friends, Sasuke back home, all that stuff…I would get these dreams where all of that was a lie. You weren't with me, the kids were gone, Sasuke was gone, I wasn't Hokage, my friends were all against me…And now all of it is happening! In just one day I've lost almost everything and everyone I love…Now I'm afraid…I can't…" Naruto turned to Sakura, his face stained with tears. "…I _can't_ loose you too."

Sakura wrapped her arms tightly around her man, whispering soothing noises in his ear. "You will never loose me Naruto, _never_. Your fears aren't coming true; we can fix all of this, _together_." She paused only for a moment. "I told you a long time ago that my feelings for Sasuke weren't what they were before. I don't know what my life would have been if I had chosen to marry him, but I know that, whatever that life may have been, it could never equal what you've given me. You've given me your heart, your devotion, your love every day of our lives and I'm ashamed that it took me so long to see it."

She looked her husband straight in the eyes. "I'm in love with you Naruto, and I don't care what anybody says or anybody does, _nothing_ is ever going to change that!"

Naruto, all his manliness be damned, couldn't stop himself from hugging his wife as if he were never going to let her go. Sakura held him as he let the last of his grief out, running her hand through his golden locks.

She didn't know what came over her, but she remembered a song that her mother would sing to her when she was a little girl:

_Come stop your crying, it will be alright__  
__just take my hand, hold it tight__  
__I will protect you from all around you__  
__I will be here, don't you cry__  
__For one so small you seem so strong__  
__My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm__  
__This bond between us, can't be broken__  
__I will be here, don't you cry_

_Cause you'll be in my heart__  
__Yes you'll be in my heart__  
__From this day on, now and forever more_

_You'll be in my heart__  
__No matter what they say__  
__You'll be here in my heart always..._

_Why can't they understand the way we feel?__  
__They just don't trust, what they can't explain__  
__I know we're different but, deep inside us__  
__We're not that different at all_

_Cause you'll be in my heart__  
__Yes you'll be in my heart__  
__From this day on, now and forever more_

_Don't listen to them, what do they know?__  
__We need each other to have to hold__  
__They'll see in time...I know...__  
__When destiny calls you, you must be strong (you gotta be strong)__  
__I might not be with you, but you got to hold on__  
__They'll see in time...I know...__  
__We'll show them together_

_Cause you'll be in my heart__  
__Yes you'll be in my heart__  
__From this day on, now and forever more_

_You'll be in my heart (you'll be here in my heart)__  
__No matter what they say (I'll be with you)__  
Y__ou'll be here in my heart (I'll be there) always...__  
A__lways...I'll be with you__  
I__'ll be there for you always, always and always__  
J__ust look over your shoulder__  
J__ust look over your shoulder__  
J__ust look over your shoulder__  
I__'ll be there always..._

Naruto looked up at his wife, entranced at what she had just sung to him. She smiled warmly at him.

"I love you, Sakura," Naruto said, his hope and happiness restored.

Sakura was herself becoming overwhelmed with joy. "I love you too, Naruto, so, so very much."

With that, their lips met in a soft, yet blissful kiss. There was no lust, no raw passion behind it, just honest, pure, true love. Neither of them knew how long they stayed like that, and neither of them cared.

They had no idea what was in store for their future, but they did know one thing beyond any doubt: whatever was out there, they would get through it the same way they've always gotten through everything…together.

* * *

"Alright, everybody stop and listen up!" Odaku commanded. "I've just received a phone call from an innkeeper in a village near the northern border of the Fire Country. He says that our targets have checked into his inn for the night. Our plan is to continue on into the night until we reach the village; attack them both while they are still in their room. Remember, use of deadly force is authorized."

"Excuse me Captain," Sai interrupted, "but I thought that this was a retrieval mission. Doesn't Councilman Uragi want us to bring the fugitives in alive?"

"If we can help it, yes. But remember Captain Sai, as well as the rest of you, that these are two very skilled and powerful criminals we are dealing with. They will not show you any mercy, so we cannot afford to show them any ourselves. If we are forced to take out the targets in order to complete our mission then so be it."

"But Captain," Lee said, "what of the so-called withheld information that Naruto and Sakura are carrying? If we kill either of them won't that information be lost?"

Odaku noticed an uncharacteristic smugness in Rock Lee's tone, as if he was actively trying to call him out on his own contradictions. His reaction to this was to walk right up to Lee and get in his face.

"Rock Lee, I have been appointed leader of this mission by the councilman himself. Are you questioning my authority on this matter? Because if so I can file a report to the council and have you taken off missions of any kind for the next six months."

Lee remained silent and unblinking for about a second, "No captain; forgive me."

"That's what I thought."

As Odaku turned to walk back to the front of the group, Lee looked over at all of his friends. All of them knew that they needed to do something to prevent Odaku from using deadly force on their two friends.

"Inuzuka," Odaku called out, "does your mutt still have Uzumaki and Haruno's scent?"

Kiba gritted his teeth, "His name's Akamaru."

"Whatever; does he have their scent or not?"

Kiba glanced to his wife, than they both got an idea.

"Yeah, he does, but…"

"But what?"

"But Akamaru's been running all day and he looks to be getting tired captain," said Hinata, who got on her knees and started scratching the underside of Akamaru's chin, much to the large dog's enjoyment. "Maybe it's for his own good that we make camp for a while and continue our pursuit later, that way we can intercept the targets when they've barely awoken the next morning."

"No Lady Hyūga, we cannot give them any opening to escape. Even the slightest window of time could give them an advantage that we cannot afford."

"With all do respect captain, I have to agree with Lady Hinata," Shino added, catching on to what they were doing, as was everyone else. "We've been running all day and the company is becoming fatigued, whereas Naruto still has the stamina of a jinchūriku and Sakura is a master healer, so who knows what kinds of stimulants and food pills she may have on her."

"Yeah, I don't think we'll stand much of a chance unless we all get some rest first," said Ino.

"Not to mention those of us who are dying of hunger right now," Chōji quipped.

"And besides, some of us are carrying an entire arsenal of weapons on our backs," said Tenten, "A little time to take the weight off and stretch would do some good."

Odaku groaned, "Bunch of lazy, good-for-nothing slackers! Nara, you're supposed to be the genius here, what's your opinion?"

Shikamaru quickly gave his answer. "Honestly captain, there's not much I can add. They've got some valid points. I say the best thing we can do is catch a few hours rest and then hustle to the village by sunrise."

Sai, in a very uncharacteristic moment, turned to Odaku with a smirk. "It would seem that you have been outvoted, Captain Odaku."

Odaku put him head down in disbelief, "Fine. Everybody take a rest for about three hours. But after that, we press on and we don't stop until we make it to that village. Is that understood?"

"HAI!" they all shouted.

The Jōnin made camp, which was mostly just their sleeping bags, and plotted what the next move should be.

"Hey Hinata, Kiba, great distraction back there," praised Tenten.

"Thanks," Kiba said, "anything it takes to keep Uragi's hired goon from slaughtering Naruto and Sakura in their sleep…" The Inuzuka then realized what he had just said out loud, "Sorry honey."

"No, it's okay," said Hinata, "I just hope we bought them enough time."

"Most likely," Shikamaru interrupted. "Naruto's not the same idiot that he used to be; they'll probably sneak out before the sun rises tomorrow morning."

"Are you certain old dickless isn't still an idiot?" Sai countered. "Because I just spoke with Odaku and he told me the aliases that the innkeeper claims Naruto used to check himself and Sakura into his establishment."

"Oh, and what might they be?" Chōji asked curiously.

"The innkeeper has their first names listed as 'Minato and Kushina.'"

Everybody groaned in embarrassment at their Hokage's idiotic choice of aliases, and a few of them even slapped their own foreheads for good measure.

"What an IDIOT!" Ino shouted.

"Jeez, how conspicuous can you be?!" Shikamaru protested. "This is so troublesome."

"Whatever guys, lets just get what rest we can until Odaku decides its time to head out again," Shino said.

And so the company rested, all hoping that their friends had enough time to get out of there by morning.

* * *

It was 7 am that morning, and the company arrived as early as humanly possible. Odaku approached the front desk and the innkeeper instantly recognized him.

"Odaku, thank you for coming," the innkeeper said.

"Thank you for reporting in." Odaku then leaned in and whispered something that none of his team could hear.

He then pulled back, "So where are the targets now."

"They are up in room 203; haven't left their room yet."

"Alright team, this is it" Odaku addressed the others. "Be prepared for anything, they may try to trick us!"

With that, everyone got their kunai ready and proceeded upstairs. They instantly gathered around the door to the room.

"Lady Hyūga," Odaku called out, "are the targets inside?"

"Let me see…BYAKUGAN!"

Hinata activated her kekki genki in order to see through the walls of the room.

"Two targets, one male, one female…" Hinata didn't want to say what she was about to. "…Hai captain, it appears to be Lord Hokage and his wife."

"Thank you m'lady." Odaku thanked her in a, frankly, thankless tone. "Alright everyone, on the count of three. One…Two…THREE!"

Odaku kicked the door in with all his strength, and charged in, kunai at the ready.

"FREEZE!"

Naruto and Sakura were there, just as Hinata said. Neither of them made a move.

"Put your hands where I can see them!"

Both of them did so.

"Lord Hokage, Lady Haruno, you are both under arrest for the withholding of intelligence from Konohagakure. If you do not comply, we will use deadly force."

The couple glanced towards each other for a moment before looking back to the Anbu captain."

"Captain Odaku," Naruto stated, "As your former Hokage I commend you on your successful pursuit of us. However, I regret to inform you that we are not ready to return to Konoha just yet."

"This isn't a negotiation!" Odaku shouted. "Akimichi, slap the handcuffs on them both!"

Chōji, with a sad face, walked into the room and slapped the handcuffs on two of his closest friends.

"I'm sorry about this you guys," he said.

"It's okay Chōji," Sakura replied, before she and her husband each got a sly smirk on their faces.

Ino was the first to notice this and secretly used her Mind Reading ability to find out what her friends were up to. When she did she was quite surprised at what she had found. She transferred their plan into everyone else's minds except Odaku's…all of them were smirking to themselves internally, and some of them externally.

"Lord Hokage, you and your wife will face justice for your crimes of conspiracy against the Hidden Leaf Village. Do either of you have anything to say before we return?"

"Yes, we do," Naruto said. "Do you see that laptop computer sitting on the desk behind you?" Odaku and the others all turned and, sure enough, there it was. "Open it, on the screen you will find a video message that will sum up everything we have to say."

Odaku huffed and addressed his team, "Watch them."

He opened up the laptop computer, recognizing it as a cheep, complimentary version that the inn provides guests, himself included when he had stayed here while on past missions.

On the laptop screen popped a video of some kind; there was a musical tune booming in the background of what appeared to be a scrawny, light-skinned young male with brown hair and wearing an oversized white sports jacket. The man was dancing in a goofy manner for several seconds before he started singing:

_We're no strangers to love__  
__You know the rules and so do I__  
__A full commitment's what I'm thinkin' of__  
__You wouldn't get this from any other guy__  
__I just wanna tell you how I'm feelin'__  
__Gotta make you understand_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

_We've know each other for so long__  
__Your heart's been achin' but you're too shy to say it__  
__Inside we both know what's been going on__  
__We know the game and we're gonna play it__  
__And if you ask me how I'm feelin'__  
__Don't tell me you're too blind to see_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

_(Give you up, give you up)__  
__Never gonna give, never gonna give__  
__(Give you up)__  
__Never gonna give, never gonna give__  
__(Give you up)_

_We've know each other for so long__  
__Your heart's been achin' but you're too shy to say it__  
__Inside we both know what's been going on__  
__We know the game and we're gonna play it__  
__I just wanna tell you how I'm feelin'__  
__Gotta make you understand_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

_Never gonna give you up__  
__Never gonna let you down__  
__Never gonna run around and desert you__  
__Never gonna make you cry__  
__Never gonna say goodbye__  
__Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you_

Odaku could only stare at the screen is total confusion over what he had just seen. His team, on the other hand, were either grinning, chucking to themselves, or breaking out into fits of laughter at their captain's expense.

"What the hell am I looking at?!"

Sai, of all people, was the one to answer, "I believe that you have just been 'Rickroll'd' captain."

'Oh my god, that was friggin' hilarious!' Kiba thought. "Leave it to Naruto to pull a prank like that!'

'How troublesome,' Shikamaru thought. 'Funny, but troublesome…for the captain anyway.'

'Hahaha! Damn that was a good one!' Chōji thought.

'Any other day I'd think that was lame,' Ino thought, 'but this time, it was—it was… HAHAHAHAHA!'

'Hmm…I must say, that gentleman in the white coat is displaying quite the admirable level of youth indeed," Lee pondered to himself, "His dance moves may make him a worthy opponent for even my skills."

"I've got to hand it to the guy, I never would have thought to pull a stunt like that,' thought Tenten.

'I cannot believe that the fool would take the time to set up this prank when he should have been making his escape…or that it is surprisingly amusing.' pondered Shino.

Hinata didn't think anything, but she did giggle to herself at her former crush's childish antics.

"ENOUGH!" Odaku shouted as he turned to the two fugitives. "That was a very _un_funny prank you just pulled on me Lord Seventh—"

"Not funny?" Kiba questioned, "What are you talking about? That was hysterical!" He then got a death glare from the rugged-faced leader. "Never mind." He muttered one more word under his breath, "Tool."

"Lord Seventh, what was the meaning of showing us that pointless video?" Odaku asked.

"Just to distract you all while Sakura and I made our escape. And also to send a message to whoever may be looking for us, which, just in case it wasn't clear, boils down to this."

Naruto and Sakura, in perfect unison and still in handcuffs, raised both of their middle fingers up to Odaku and then each gave him a raspberry like a couple of foul-mouthed little kids…And then they both dissipated in a puff of smoke, leaving the handcuffs behind to fall to the floor.

"DAMN IT! Shadow clones! Hyūga, you can see a person's chakra network; shouldn't you have been able to sense they were clones with your kekki genki?"

"I'm sorry captain, I must not have picked up on that," Hinata lied.

Odaku groaned in frustration, punching a wall no less. Their targets could be miles away by now…

* * *

Hours before the sun were due to rise, Naruto and Sakura woke up to enact what they each had agreed. They both knew that they could not afford to be there in the morning. With wanted posters lined up on the walls of the inn, even an idiot like Naruto could put it together that the innkeeper was only letting them stay the night as part of a plan to collect the bounty on their heads.

But Naruto had a plan for whoever would be waiting for them, and now that his and Sakura's shadow clones had dispelled, all the information from the encounter came flooding back to him…and now he was laughing his ass off.

"Did your plan work?" Sakura asked.

"Yep! My God, you should have seen the look on Odaku's face!"

"So Odaku's the one coming after us?"

Naruto suddenly got serious, "Yeah, and he's got a team of nine others with him."

"A ten-man squad? Isn't that a bit excessive just to bring back two missing-nin?"

"Yeah, but most missing-nin aren't a former kage and a master medical ninja."

"…Point taken." Sakura noticed a disturbed look on her husband's face. "What's the matter?"

"Sakura…the other nine ninja that Odaku brought with him…they're our friends."

"W-What?"

"You heard me; Sai, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, Chōji, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Tenten, all of them."

"You don't…you don't think any of them _believe_ that we did anything wrong, do you?"

"No, not a chance in hell…" Naruto was confident on the outside, but internally he was having a moniker of doubt, "…Or at least I hope not."

"Wait…if all of them are out here looking for us, then who's watching their kids?"

"They're probably being watched over by their other parent's and guardians right now."

"I hope all of them are all right."

"Hey don't worry Sakura; they're all pretty smart kids. They know better than to do anything that will get them into trouble…"

* * *

Booyah! Y'all got Rickroll'd suckas! ...No, I'm only kidding. In all seriousness, I hope nobody took Naruto's practical joke too personally; it was meant to be a joke at Odaku's expense, not yours. It was also meant to give us a taste of the old, prankster side of Naruto's character.

As far as references this time, the village that Naruto and Sakura hide out in was inspired by Bree from "The Lord of the Rings," meaning that the inn itself was inspired, at least partially, by The Prancing Pony.

I liked the idea of them using Naruto's parents names as aliases while they were on the lam, even if I did point out how utterly stupid it is given how famous both Naruto and his dad are, so it's no wonder the innkeeper made the connection.

Some of you might have been uncomfortable with the argument that they had in their room, but the thing is that married couples, or anybody in a romantic relationship, have disagreements from time to time or need some way to vent their frustrations, and I think we can all agree that Naruto and Sakura have A LOT of bad things piling up on them right now. But I wanted to make a point that what makes them a great couple is how emotionally in tune they are with each other and how their love can survive anything. Plus, after seeing Naruto come to Sakura's emotional support in so many NaruSaku fanfics, I thought it would be nice to see the opposite for a change and have her comforting him.

The idea I had is that Naruto is having his worst fear come true; the dream life that he has worked so hard to create for himself is almost totally destroyed. Think about it: he's not Hokage anymore, his village and friends (he fears) have turned against him, his son is on a mission that could potentially get him killed, his daughter is missing...Sakura's the only thing he has left, so he's afraid that he might loose her too, be it to her old feelings for Sasuke or that she gets killed. I wanted to clarify this in case any of you thought Naruto was seriously accusing her of infidelity; trust me, that is not going to be happening in this story!

Lastly, the songs, "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. These are probably the last two songs you would ever expect to see paired together in anything, but that was part of the joke. I realize that the original idea for Collins's song, as it was used in the Disney movie "Tarzan," was to describe the relationship between a mother and her adopted son, but I felt that it could also work in this context as well. As for the Astley song...Watchmojo named #1 on their list of the Top Ten Internet Memes, 'nuff said.

By the way, in case there are any NaruSaku fans who want to try and make a post-699-700 NaruSaku AMV, I recommend using the song "Separate Ways (World's Apart)" by Journey; just do me a favor and credit me for the idea.

Well, I think that's all I've got. Until next time, see ya!


	13. Chapter 13--Lost and Found

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure."

Thanks again for all the continued support and feedback I've received for this story. I hope that this latest chapter continues to hold your interest as the truth behind the conspiracy will come to light real soon.

On an unrelated note, the next episode of Death Battle is going to be posted very soon as of the time of this chapter's posting. The combatants...Gaara vs. Toph! As much as us Naruto fans are all looking forward to seeing Gaara win, I have to confess that since "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is one of my favorite shows of all time, a part of me is kind of pulling for Toph a little bit more (_please_ don't hate me), but regardless, I'll be more than satisfied no matter who wins the fight. Here's hoping that we get to see more Naruto and Avatar characters on the show in the future. Actually, maybe that will be the only way to bring a real end to the shipping war, pitting Sakura and Hinata against each other in a Death Battle...I'm just kidding. LOL!

Back on topic, some of you may get upset with the way this chapter ends, but I ask you all to please trust me because I do have a plan for all of this. However, like any good mystery or conspiracy, all of it has to come out gradually. Please, just have faith my fellow Naruto fans.

That's all I've got for the intro this time, so lets get the reading!

* * *

**Chapter 13: Lost and Found**

"Shouldn't we be there by now, Uncle Sasuke?" Shinachiku asked as they kept leaping tree to tree.

"Should be just about there," Sasuke said. "Why, getting board kid?"

"No…just anxious is all."

Shinachiku was anxious all right…anxious to get answers to what was going on. He needed to find out what Sasuke was talking with Randamu about, or why they were talking at all.

"Hey Uncle Sasuke?"

"What?"

"Don't you think it's curious that we haven't run into any more opposition since we met that Randamu guy? I mean, what if he's still out there somewhere, or someone even worse, just waiting for us when we get to the village?"

Sasuke noticed a curious tone in the way the boy said that. It sounded like he was accusing him of something, or he was looking to see if he knew anything he wasn't told.

'No, not yet,' Sasuke thought, 'I can't tell him yet; his time will come, but right now I need to get him there first.'

"Kid," Sasuke said, "I hope you're not getting scared on me, because its too late to head back home. Now if there are no other questions, let's stay focused on where we're going."

Shinachiku needed to accept the answer given to him, "Yes sir."

And so they kept running for hours and hours. Before they knew it the sun was starting to go down and they were loosing the light. Shinachiku had been running for so long that he was finally beginning to grow fatigued, but he knew that his godfather wasn't going to stop until they made it to where they needed to be. So he kept running…

…Thank goodness all of that running finally came to an end. As they came to the edge of forest, they exited the last row of trees and came to a cliff overlooking the ocean. There was a large island located a couple miles off the coast. From what Shinachiku could see, it looked like the island was filled with buildings and houses, all of which were left in an apocalyptic, ruined mess.

"Well kid, there it is," Sasuke said to the boy. "Uzushiogakure, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools."

"I thought it was also called the Village Hidden in the _Eddies_?"

"Umm…well, I've heard both names used before."

"Okay…But what about us Uncle Sasuke? It's practically night by now, so it's going to be tough for us to find the Chakra Gem now?"

"You're right; we're best off making camp and then resuming our search in the morning. Your father taught you the walk on water exercise right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because we don't have a boat, so this will be our only way to cross the ocean to get to the island."

"Wait a minute, isn't there a ferry of something around here that we can charter to get us to the island?"

"Look around you kid. Do you _see_ any ferries around here? This village has been deserted for generations. Ever since the village got wiped out in war, this part of the Fire Country hasn't exactly been big on tourists."

"Oh…"

"So, might as well unpack your stuff and get plenty of rest kid. We start our search up again at dawn."

With that, both Leaf shinobi unpacked their gear and rolled out their sleeping bags from their sealing scrolls. They didn't talk much as they got their much needed rest, but there was a conversation between the two of them before they went to sleep that stayed on the boy's mind…

* * *

They two of them had finished making camp as the sun finished going down. Shinachiku was looking over the cliff, letting the cool ocean breeze hit his face as he stared out over the water to the island in the distance. He was so lost in thought that he did not notice the raven-haired, one-armed adult came up behind him.

"You alright kid?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine Uncle Sasuke, just thinking is all."

"Thinking about what?"

He looked back out over the water. "Well, this is the village where my grandma came from, and I hardly know anything about her."

Sasuke remained expressionless, "I'm sorry kid, but I don't know what to say to that. I've never met her."

"Yeah I know. My dad met her once, same with my grandpa, but it was only for one meeting. He learned how she and grandpa fell in love and what really happened the day Kurama attacked the village, but that was it. I just…I just wish I could have met her."

Sasuke put his hand on the boy's shoulder, "I know your mother feels the same way. Maybe visiting this place will help you to grow closer to her."

"You really think so Uncle Sasuke?"

Sasuke sighed, "I don't know for certain kid, but I do know what it's like to loose a family."

Shinachiku realized what memories this must be bringing up for the grown man. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"It's okay; it's in the past. Besides, I've got my own family now."

Shinachiku's mind wandered to something else. "Uncle Sasuke…what happened between you and Aunt Karin? And where's Sarada?"

Sasuke didn't say anything for several seconds. "It's getting late kid; let's get some rest for tomorrow."

* * *

Shinachiku could not get any sleep. He had no idea what was waiting for him tomorrow, but he didn't want to believe that his dad's best friend, his godfather, might be leading him into some sort of trap. He needed to get away…

'No, no I can't leave,' Shinachiku thought, 'Dad wouldn't run away from danger and neither will I…Wait a minute! DAD!'

Quietly, with care not to make a sound that might wake up the man in the sleeping bag next to him, Shinachiku snuck out of his sleeping bag and went into the woods.

Little did the boy realize that Sasuke was awake and watching what he was doing the entire time…

When he felt that he was far enough away to go about unnoticed, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket...only to find that it was broken.

'Damn! I must have gotten broken when I fought that Randamu guy! Now what do I do?!'

About ten seconds later, the boy's head snapped up as he remembered something else. He opened the sealing scroll that he brought with him and got out the journal and pen he had brought with him. As quickly as he could, he wrote out a message and then tore out the piece of paper and folded it into smaller portions for easier transport. He then bit his thumb and planted his hand on the forest floor.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

In a puff of smoke came a small, red toad, looking very similar to how Gamakichi looked back when Naruto was only Shinachiku's age.

"What do you want kid?" the toad asked a bit rudely.

"Hey," the boy introduced himself, "I summoned you because I have a message that I need you to deliver to my father back in Konoha."

"You know they usually rely on cell phones for this sort of thing, right kid?"

The boy pulled his broken phone out of his pocket, "Not this time."

"Fine, whose your father kid?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage," Shinachiku said that with a sense of pride.

The toad was silent for a moment. "Umm…kid, you haven't been in touch with the news lately, have you?"

The boy looked dreadfully confused, "What are you talking about?"

The toad let out a long sigh, "Kid, you'd better sit down because there's something very serious that you need to know."

The blonde-haired Genin sat down innocently on the forest floor, feet crossed beneath him. The toad could merely sigh internally, 'Oh boy, this is gonna be a long night.'

Several yards away, the boy's godfather was looking at the scene before him coldly, as if he had something deep on his mind…

* * *

It was the next morning in Konoha and the atmosphere at the Academy was quite different compared to the hustle and bustle that the village was used too. In the wake of Naruto and Sakura's exile from the village, Councilman Uragi had agreed to take up the Hokage position in the interim until both the Seventh and his wife could be proven innocent or a more suitable replacement could be found. Both Lady Tsunade and Kakashi Hatake were offered a chance to take up their former Hokage status, but they each refused, stating that to do so would suggest that they believed everything that was being said about their former students.

Right now, Kakashi and Tsunade were having breakfast with several of their friends; they all felt that they had a lot to talk about.

"This is all bullshit!" Tsunade shouted as she slammed her glass of juice (which she had spiked without anyone noticing) on the table.

"Agreed; how did it come to this?" Kakashi asked out loud.

"Well, we'll get those answers when Naruto and Sakura come back home," Kurenai responded.

"That's assuming that the retrieval squad doesn't loose sight of their mission and remembers to bring them in alive," Yamato added.

"Yamato," Tsunade objected, "the retrieval squad is made up of Naruto and Sakura's closest friends. The last thing on any of their minds is murdering my old pupil and the closest thing I have to son."

"Forgive my bluntness m'lady; I wasn't referring to their friends as much as the Anbu captain that is leading them."

"Yamato, I'm surprised that you are thinking this way," Kakashi said. "As one of Naruto's former instructors and leaders, you have seen that boy grow into a man just as I have. Furthermore, we've both seen how much Sakura has grown as well. Anbu captain or not, do you really think that Odaku has a chance against either of them, much less both of them together?"

Yamato was ashamed of himself for doubting Naruto and Sakura's abilities, so he humbly ate crow in that moment. "No, I don't."

"Indeed, Naruto and Sakura are blessed with the Springtime of Youth and their abilities must never be put in doubt." Guy injected. "Likewise, our faith in their children must not be allowed to flounder either."

"Nobody ever said that we where doubting them Guy," said Kakashi, "nor are we doubting Shinachiku or Hanami for any reason."

"In speaking of kids," Kurenai wondered, "how do you all suppose the kids of the retrieval squad members are doing now that their parents are gone?"

"I'm sure they're doing fine," Shizune answered. "Those kids know better than to get themselves into trouble."

"Shizune," Tsunade interrupted, "I know you've never been a mother and neither have I, but you've worked with enough children by now to recognize that they _always_ find ways to get themselves into trouble."

"She's right," Iruka concurred, "I used to teach at the Academy so I've learned that lesson the hard way, especially from a certain orange-clad knucklehead. The _real_ question is what kind of trouble those kids may get into and if it gets them in over their heads."

* * *

It was after noon in the Hidden Leaf Village and seven children, all Genin rank shinobi, had all gathered at Ichikaru's for lunch. Since taking the Hokage position, Councilman Uragi has made missions outside the village even scarcer than they were before, leaving many of the village ninjas, particularly Genin and Academy students, without much to do.

Fortunately, this was a golden opportunity for these seven children in question. They needed time alone together to go over their plan and to put it into action. Teuchi prepared their food as his daughter Ayame took their orders. As they waited for their food, they all got down to talking.

"Okay brainiac, what's the plan from here?" Ōkami asked.

Shikadai took a sip from his drink, than spoke. "Alright, first thing's first. Has anyone done a sweep of the Academy yet?"

"Yeah, onii-chan and I looked top-to-bottom, Hanami's not there," Tsuki said.

"Then let's all stop and put our head's together. Now, if you were trying to track down a couple of allegedly wanted criminals and your plan was to use their own daughter as leverage to lure them back to the village, and you wanted to keep her in a place that nobody would ever think to look, where would that be?"

Everyone was in deep thought for several seconds. Finally, Inojin spoke up.

"How about inside of her own house?"

The others all looked at him like he was a complete idiot.

"Dude, seriously?" Ōkami asked in annoyance.

"It would make sense to me," Inojin explained. "The house is undoubtedly being kept under Anbu guard as we speak, and the mere suggestion of holding Hanami hostage inside of her own home sounds so dumb that no one would suspect it."

"You know something," Shikadai thought out loud, "you may have a point there."

"What, really?" Chōchō asked.

"Yeah, it's called reverse thinking. You do something that seems so incredibly stupid to everyone else that no one will think to suspect you of doing that very thing; thus, you have yourself an unexpected advantage."

"And besides, Hanami has the most kick ass house in the entire village!" Ōkami added. There was dead silence as the others all scolded at him. "What, we all know it's true!"

"I—okay, yes, Hanami and Shinachiku do have the most awesome house in the village," Shikadai admitted, "but I seriously doubt that they are letting her enjoy any of it. More likely they'd be keeping her under house arrest."

"You mean they are locking her in her room without freedom to go outside?" Burandon asked.

"Maybe. Let's not forget, all of this is purely speculative."

"You know," Bagu interrupted, "Shinachiku did confide in me once that there was a hidden panic room located in the basement of his house. He said the only two ways inside were with his father's Flying Thunder God Technique or through a secret entrance to a hidden tunnel located somewhere outside the property."

The others were dumbstruck. "Holy s—" Ōkami didn't get to finish his profanity before he was interrupted.

"Why did he tell you about this and not the rest of us?" Tsuki asked.

"Because I just so happened to stumble across the entrance to the tunnel as I was training with my insects one day and I asked him about it."

"And why were you training so close to Shinachiku's house instead of at one of the training grounds?" Inojin asked.

"I don't know, I guess I wanted a change of scenery."

"Okay then…" Shikadai had to gather his boundaries as he processed this new information. "New plan: as soon as we finish our lunch, Bagu, you take us to the Uzumaki Estate and show us where this tunnel is."

"Wait, how do we even know that we'll find anything there?" Chōchō asked. "If what Bagu says is true, then it's just going to lead us into some room in the basement of Hanami's house with no other way out."

"Yes, and for all we know the entrance might have already been found and is being guarded by Anbu black ops already." Inojin pondered.

"You might be right," Shikadai surmised, "but if this hidden room really does exist, then if I were Hanami and I somehow managed to get away fro whoever was holding me prisoner, that's the first place I'd go to hide."

"No offense Shika, but I doubt that Hanami knows her dad's Flying Thunder God Technique," Ōkami remarked.

"At her age, probably not, but she likely _has_ been told by her parents where the secret entrance is in case of an emergency, just like her brother was."

"Are saying you expect to find her in there?" Tsuki asked.

"I have no idea what we'll find in there; but we'll never know unless we go check it out."

There was another silence among the children, as if they doubted to idea of looking into this at all. But leave it to the overly youthful voice of optimism to stir them into action.

"Yosh! Very well then my friends, let us first partake in the meal or ramen and then make haste to the Uzumaki Estate!"

"Oh shut up Burandon! God you're annoying," Ōkami groaned.

"In speaking of lunch," Chōchō said, "I think that it's coming right now."

Ayame came to their table and served their food. The kids eat their meal quietly without too much chatter, since they now had a lot on their minds.

None of them had any idea what they would find inside this so-called secret room within the Uzumaki house, but if there was any chance that Hanami might be there, or that it might lead to a clue where she was, then it was a risk they had to take.

* * *

Anko Mitarashi, tokubetsu Jōnin of Konohagakure, former student of the traitorous Orochimaru, and currently an instructor at the Academy, was sitting at her favorite dango shop with two of her friends. On the left was Temari, wind mistress, former Jōnin of Sunagakure, and the eldest of the three Sand Siblings. On the right was Karui, former Chūnin of Kumogakure and member of Team Samui. Both of these women were among the strongest kunoichi of their generation, and both of them made the choice to transfer from their village of birth for the same reason…they each fell in love.

Neither of them saw it coming. Temari didn't expect that Shikamaru Nara, the lazy genius from the Leaf Village, would end of winning her affection without even trying, but somehow he did, and while Suna would always be her home, she had a family and a son here that she would not pass up for anything. Likewise, Karui could have never guessed that the big boned young man from the Akimichi clan would have so much in common with her, but after the war they got to talking and something sparked that neither could explain. Like Temari, Kumo was her home, but if she hadn't met Chōji then she wouldn't have been blessed with her beautiful daughter.

Still, being parents did not mean either of them where content with being mere housewives. They each made sure to keep up with their ninja training to one day help defend their new home, as well as passing on all they knew to their children.

"Thank you for inviting us Anko," said Temari. "I have to admit that without Shikamaru around this helps keep my life from getting boring."

"Funny, I would think that life would be boring _with_ a guy liked Shikamaru," Karui remarked.

"You'd be surprised. He may be lazy, but at least he's not a fa—" Temari slapped her hand over her mouth after realizing what she was about to say. She noticed the cold stare that Karui was giving her. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking!"

"Oh forget about it! I fell in love with Chōji for who he is, not what he looks like."

Temari smiled, "Same."

Karui turned to look at Anko. "Speaking of which, have you been loosing weight Anko?"

"I've been trying too; in fact, this is my first time coming to the dango shop all week."

"I'm impressed," Temari said.

"Thanks, we can't all have Naruto's metabolism y'know."

After sharing a hearty laugh, there was an uncomfortable silence among the three women as they thought about their former leader.

"You don't really think that Naruto and Sakura are traitors do you?" Karui asked.

"Not a chance in hell!" Temari proclaimed. "I owe that boy so much; if it wasn't for him, then Gaara would still be a murderous, antisocial monster instead of the great leader he is now. If not for Sakura, then Kankurō wouldn't even be alive today. There's no way either of them are guilty of what the Anbu are saying they are."

"Yeah," Anbu added, "that kid is one hell of a ninja. I've seen him in action and there's no way any of this bullshit is true."

"So says the woman who, as I've been told, licked blood off of his face when he was a freaking twelve-year old."

"Hey, that was just some innocent fun. And anyway, aren't you the girl who got pissed off and beat the living crap out of him just because of what Sasuke was doing?"

"It was the blonde's own fault for refusing to fight back! Whatever the case, I just hope Chōji and the others find them soon and bring them back home."

The other two women nodded in agreement and went back to eating their food.

"Say," Anko asked, "have any of you seen the kids today. It's been a while since I've last seen Chōchō."

"I don't know, I think she said something about hanging out with her friends today," Karui answered.

"Yeah, Shikadai said something about that too," Temari concurred. "I swear if that boy gets himself into any trouble there's going to be hell to pay."

* * *

The kids were standing outside the western fence of the Uzumaki Estate. As they feared there were small squads of Anbu guards standing watch, mostly patrolling the front gate and keeping watch around from all sides of the fence.

"Well, there's no way we're getting in through the front," Inojin quipped.

"Bagu, are you sure this secret tunnel of yours is really here?" asked a skeptical Ōkami.

"I'm sure. If I remember it correctly…" Bagu started walking around the area, being watchful to make sure none of the Anbu noticed him. "…it should be somewhere around…here."

He pointed to an area of grassy land with only a slightly raised hill, nothing that looked too suspicious. But the dog on Tsuki's shoulder leaped off and started running to the hill.

"Akamiri wait!"

Then Ōkami's own pet leaped off his shoulder and ran the same way.

"Akamoro what are you doing?!"

The dogs were small enough, and quiet enough, that somehow they did not attract the Anbu's attention. They both ran to the hill and started scratching away at the grass covering the hill.

The Inuzuka-Hyūga siblings looked to each other and nodded in agreement at what they needed to do.

"BYAKUGAN!" they both shouted as they activated their kekki genkai's. They scanned the hill to see if there was anything unusual about it, and sure enough…

"Okay, you've got me Bagu," Ōkami admitted in defeat. "There is some kind of hollow structure under there and it looks like it goes down several meters towards the understructure of the house…I guess this means I'm paying for your lunch next time."

"Shhhh! Quiet! Somebody's coming!" Chōchō shouted.

The kids ducked into their hiding place as an Anbu guard finally noticed the two dogs outside the property. He and one other guard he signaled to ran to chase them off.

"Damn! If those Anbu start looking around and find the tunnel then this whole mission's been for nothing. What a troublesome drag!" Shikadai cursed.

"Let me handle this."

Inojin got into position and made one the hand signs that his mother had taught him.

"MIND DESTRUCTION JUTSU!"

Something overcame the two Anbu and they both passed out.

"Yes! Excellent work Inojin, now we are free to explore the tunnel," Burandon praised.

"Umm…you didn't just _kill_ those two, did you?" Ōkami asked worried.

"No, I just disabled their minds momentarily. By the time they come to we'll have had enough time to get inside and they'll be none the wiser."

"Great work Inojin!" Chōchō praised.

"Yeah, now come on, let's get moving," Shikadai ordered.

The seven kids quickly dashed over to the small hill. They carefully lifted a piece of grass off of it, finding that the grass was just the tarp for a wooden panel. Once the panel was removed, it revealed a tunnel large enough for people to pass through standing up, no crawling through tight, dark spaces required. Each of the kids, plus the two dogs, entered the tunnel single file, closing the panel behind them.

"Great, now it's too dark to see anything," Ōkami complained. "Bagu, how did you manage to see in here?"

"Don't look at me. I only _found_ this tunnel and asked Shinachiku about it before, I never said anything about going inside it myself."

"Wait my friends, I may have a solution."

Burandon, despite the darkness, reached into his miniature weapons pouch and pulled out a small lighter. He flicked it on and it did, barely, help to illuminate the tunnel.

"Tsuki, could you please hold onto this for me?"

"Oh, okay." The female twin took the lighter and kept the flame lit long enough for the young taijutsu-weapons master to pull out a miniature torch. He held the torch up to the open flame and lit it, creating a much more useful source of light.

"Not bad Burandon," Shikadai complimented. "Now let's try to find the other end of this tunnel before that flame goes out."

The kids kept walking down through the tunnel. None of them were sure how long it would take for them to make it to the exit, whatever it was that was waiting for them on the other side. Until finally…

"Yosh! Look my friends; I see a light at the end of the tunnel!"

Ōkami groaned, "Seriously Burandon, couldn't you have said something a little more original."

"Quit complaining, we're almost there," Shikadai scoffed. "Be grateful things aren't a lot worse."

"Were walking through a dark tunnel with no idea what or who, if anything at all, is waiting for us on the other side. How could it be worse?"

"Well, in many stories I've read like this, the heroes usually have to walk through a sewer."

"…I'll shut up now."

The kids reached the source of the light; it was a square-shaped opening on the ceiling above them.

"This must be the entrance to the secret room within the Uzumaki house," Inojin surmised.

"So what now?" Chōchō questioned.

"Wait here, I'll take first look."

Shikadai reached up and grabbed hold of the sides of the opening. He pulled himself up to take a peak at what was inside the room…What he saw stunned him.

'Holy shit…'

* * *

Shinachiku was in a frozen state of paralysis. Or at least his mind was. There was no way that any of what the toad had just told him was true.

"No…no you're lying! My dad's the Seventh Hokage, he's a hero! My mom's a master medical ninja! There's no way that they're traitors!"

"I'm sorry kid," the toad apologized, "but that's all I know. The Council claims that they've been withholding information from the village intelligence that is of strategic importance. They escaped and went on the run, and now a ten-man Jōnin squad is tracking them down. The news spread quickly over the whole world, even as far as Mount Myōboku…I'm sorry kid."

Shinachiku hung his head; His hair cast a shadow over his eyes so no one could see them, but he could do nothing to hide the tears that came streaming down his face.

"Where's…what happened to my sister?"

The small toad looked sad for the kid as he was forced to give him the last answer he wanted to hear. "I don't know."

Shinachiku raised his head in frustration, tears still falling. "What do you mean you don't know?!"

"I'm sorry, I don't know! Nobody does! None of the news reports that have gotten out have said anything about your sister. For all we know she may still be in the village alone."

"I've got to go back! I've got to find her!"

"I think that's a bad idea."

Shinachiku turned his head and saw Sasuke there, his arm propping himself against a tree as he had clearly been listening in on everything that the boy and the toad had been saying.

"You…you knew about this didn't you?!"

"I knew _nothing_ about this."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

Sasuke didn't let any of it show, but he was a bit taken aback by the boy's tone; it reminded him of Naruto in his most angry moments.

"What have you been playing at?" the boy asked. "What are you _really_ up to? I saw you communicating with that Randamu guy the other day. What did you mean when you said that there was going to be an attack on the Leaf Village? Uncle, before I go _anywhere_ else with you, I want some answers and I want them **now!**"

Sasuke remained coldly silent, giving the boy no response.

"ANSWER ME!"

In less than a second, the Uchiha had dashed clear from where he was standing and appeared directly in front of the boy. He has his katana up against Shinachiku's throat, a Chidori current running the length of the blade.

Shinachiku had an entire empty section of the forest to retreat to, he could have attacked or retreated any time he wished…but somehow he knew better. His godfather was trying to bluff him, trick him into thinking he'd attack, and the boy wasn't buying it. He stood his ground barely phased.

Sasuke grinned, "Very good. Even in the face of certain death you were able to call my bluff. You're as brave as your father all right. And you're sharp witted too."

He stopped the Chidori current that ran through his sword and pulled the blade back from the boy's throat. "Alright kid, you want answers and you deserve them."

Shinachiku stood there waiting for whatever his godfather had to say to him…

…But in less than a second the raven-haired Jōnin was behind the boy as he whispered something in his ear. "But not quite yet."

Before the boy could say anything, he felt a pressure blow to his neck, enough to knock him out cold.

Sasuke then turned to the small toad, who could only sit there and bear witness to the shocking and confusing turn of events.

"You, carry on with your mission that this boy summoned you for. Find Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno and let them know that I have their son. Tell them that Shinachiku is safe but in the wake of all that's happened we need to have a talk."

The toad narrowed his eyes at the one-armed Uchiha's request. "And where would I find them?"

"That's your problem, but try heading for Otogakure first."

"Why there?"

"Naruto and Sakura are criminals now and don't know who they can trust; if I were in their position and I needed to try taking refuge with anybody, it would be with another criminal. Someone like my old master."

"Orochimaru?"

"Precisely. Now get out of here before I decide to have frog's legs for my meal tomorrow."

Taking the hint, the toad started hopping in the direction of the Hidden Sound Village. But he barely made one hop before he stopped and turned to face the Uchiha once more.

"Gamabunta and Gamakichi have told all us toads about this boy's father. If you lay another finger on him, Naruto will kill you, you know that right?"

"Don't worry, he'll be safe. Now go."

The toad hopped away towards the Hidden Sound Village once again, leaving the Uchiha and the Uzumaki boy alone in the forest near the coastal cliff.

Sasuke began fiddling with the microphone he wore around his neck.

"Test. Channel 3. Does anybody hear me, this is Uchiha. Does anybody copy?"

There was only blank static for a moment, than a familiar female voice came through the speaker.

"Sasuke? Is that you? Are you at the Hidden Whirlpool Village yet? Have you heard about Naruto and Sakura?"

"To answer your questions: one, yes, it's me; two, no, we're still on the cliff overlooking the ocean and we were going to head to the island in the morning; and three, yes, I just found out about them."

"What do we do now?"

"That's part of why I'm calling; there's been a change of plans…he's on to us."

"What do you mean he's on to us?"

"I mean Shinachiku, he knows there's more going on than I've told him. I have him knocked out for the time being, but we're going to need to do something if we want his help getting that Chakra Gem now."

"What's the plan?"

"Contact Suigetsu and Jūgo and let them know to meet me here. Call Randamu too; might as well lay all our cards on the table."

"Me too?"

"Oh course, seeing you may help put him at ease…Bring Sarada also."

"You know she's been looking forward to seeing him."

"I know. I'll see you soon…And Karin, I love you."

* * *

WHOA! What the heck is going on now! Remember what I said about how some of you not being happy with the ending. I promise everything will be explained in the future...until then, feel free to speculate!

Okay, now for the references. You may have noticed the joke about the confusion over whether the village is called the Hidden Eddy Village or the Hidden Whirlpool Village. That was just my momentary jab at Japanese vs. English translations by Viz.

The two scenes involving Tsunade, Kakashi and company and Anko, Temari and Karui were my way of keeping them alive in this story. I'm not sure those scene's represent my best work, but hopefully they're okay. Incidentally, the note Karai made about Anko loosing weight was my way of dealing with Anko's portrayal in Chapter 700. I appreciate what Kishimoto was trying to do with the idea that a young, sadistic seductress like Anko would grow chubby and mellow out in her later years, but I also know that a lot of her fans hated the idea, so this was my way of compromising on that.

The secret tunnel into the secret panic room in the basement of Naruto and Sakura's house is a callback to the illustrations I provided links to in the last chapter. You can refer to the intro to Chapter 12 to look them up.

The move that Sasuke used to knock out Shinachiku was meant to be the same one he used to knock out Sakura when he left the village the first time to join Orochimaru.

I think that's all I can talk about without spoiling things for the future. So, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all next time!


	14. Chapter 14--Out of Shadows, Into Light

What's up everyone, thesaiyanjedi is back again with another chapter, and boy do I have a big one for you all this time!

A lot of big things went down last time, and now they're about to get even bigger! This is the chapter where the truth about the conspiracy finally comes to light, and from the last person you might be expecting too. We'll be catching up with all but one of our current story lines and, even with all that we've got going on, there are still truths and tensions left to unravel.

This chapter is largely written around one big reference, which I'm sure you all will catch when you read it.

So, we've got a lot to get through and I won't waste anymore time. Let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 14: Out of the Shadows, Into the Light**

Naruto and Sakura found themselves on the border of the Fire Country and the Land of Sound. There was a gigantic scar formed in the Earth there, created long ago in a great battle between Konoha's founders, the First Hokage himself, Hashirama Senju, and the fallen leader of the Uchiha clan, Madara Uchiha. Those two former friends had founded the Hidden Leaf Village together in hopes of promoting peace, but disagreements over how to achieve that peace ultimately led to a battle that would become the stuff of legend.

The valley itself was carved out of the earth by Hashirama's Top Transformed Buddha technique, leaving an enormous gash that would go on to be called the Valley of the End. The waterfall that had formed here served as the border between the two neighboring countries. On either side of the waterfall were two gigantic statues, each as high as a mountain. The stone figures stood facing each other with their hands in the traditional Seal of Confrontation. On the side that was still the Land of Fire stood the towering sentinel of Hashirama Senju; on the other side of what would one day become the Land of Sound stood the traitorous Madara Uchiha…Or at least they _would_ have been there.

Unfortunately, this was not the first time Naruto had ever been to this place. Years ago, when he was only about twelve or thirteen years old, he had been forced to chase his best friend Sasuke to this very spot after his friend had made the choice to defect from the village to join with the fallen Sannin Orochimaru. Naruto tried to prevent it, but inevitably the two were destined to fight in this place, just as their ancestors had done generations before. Their battle was long and epic, ultimately ending with both of them using their greatest techniques against each other, Naruto's Rasengan and Sasuke's Chidori. The battle ended with Sasuke as the victor and moderate damage done to the statues. Naruto had failed to keep his promise to bring Sasuke back home to Sakura that day, and he swore to get stronger to make up for that failure.

Years later, mere moments after achieving victory against Kaguya in the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto and Sasuke would fight here once again, this time for Naruto to stop his friend's clouded vision of a revolution, a world without the Kages governing it and where he alone has taken on all of its hatred, seeing Naruto and the tailed beast chakra within him as the only thing left that could stand in his way. Thus, the two friends fought once again, this time with the full extent of each of their powers, and this time leaving both statues almost completely destroyed. By the end of the battle, all that remained of the two stone warriors were two hands, one from each statue, forming the Seal of Reconciliation, a fitting, if incredibly convenient symbol of the two of them finally putting aside their lifetime of differences.

Even more ironic, it was at the end of this battle that both young men lost their respective arms, Sasuke his left, Naruto his right. But of the two of them only Naruto ever agreed to Tsunade's offer to use Hasirama's cells to grow his missing limb back.

Naruto hated being in this place. So many terrible memories bubbled to the surface from merely being here. He had no plans to dwindle here too long and instead to continue onward towards Otogakure. But the most bizarre part of it was all was that this time he was here alone with Sakura. Every other time he visited here it was for a fight to the death, so being alone in this place with the woman he loved felt…awkward.

For Sakura's part, she didn't like being here either. She never bore witness to either of Naruto and Sasuke's duels here, but the scars they left her both times have never faded. It was here that Sasuke, her first love, crossed a point of no return and abandoned the Land of Fire to begin his quest for vengeance that defined the rest of his youth. It was here that Naruto nearly lost his life, to the very man she used to love, and all because she had begged him to make that stupid, selfish promise.

She swore that next time he would not have to bring Sasuke back alone and so she trained for two and a half years to be ready for when they reunited again. And yet, after the war was over, despite how far she had come and how much she and Naruto had been through, including an attempt to free him from his promise in the form of a, at the time, fake confession of love, the two men in her life were fated to battle here again. She had tried to stop it, to plead to Sasuke both in unrequited love and in anger over what he had become, to put his hatred aside and come back home…His response was a genjutsu of him stabbing the poor girl to death.

She came out of it and, her sensei Kakashi in tow, arrived at the devastated valley to find their battle already over and both boys missing an arm. She used what chakra she had left to heal them, but knew that growing whole limbs back would take skill that she did not have. It was also here that she finally got her apology from Sasuke…but even though she did forgive him, it just didn't feel like she imagined it would.

Both of them felt so many memories flooding back to them, as they both turned to each other.

"Naruto?"

Naruto said nothing for several seconds, his memories both of this place and of everything that has happened the last couple of days crowding his mind. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he could barely get out a response just loud enough for Sakura to hear.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

With that, the two of them continued north to the land of their old enemy. All the while Naruto had a single thought on his mind.

'The Valley of the End, both our ancestors and me and Sasuke's fates were decided there…I hope that no one from our clan's ever face each other in that place again…'

* * *

Uragi, Interim-Hokage of Konoha, was sitting in the Hokage's office, the office that had once belonged to the very person who his top Jōnin were searching for now. He had his emotions hidden so no one who looked at him could tell what he was thinking, if he was thinking anything at all.

At the moment he was filling out all of the paperwork at his desk, taking breaks to sip from a cup of coffee. This kept going until he heard a tapping outside of his window.

He turned to the source of the tapping and found a pair of Leaf shinobi, garbed completely in black, with masks covering their entire faces save for their eye areas.

Uragi didn't make his move for a moment, but then, as if he were slightly afraid to rub these shinobi the wrong way despite the circumstances, he proceeded to open the window to let them both in.

The two ninja, a male with bright blue eyes and a female with violet eyes, stood before the Hokage's desk.

"Want some coffee?" Uragi asked. Neither of them did or said anything.

Uragi took another sip from his cup and figured he ought to get down to business.

"The time table has moved; our window is limited. Two targets, level six. I've already sent Odaku after him with a ten-man squad, but I'm beginning to doubt that even he is enough to deal with them. And the ones selected to form his team…well, let's just say that this is a test to see if their loyalty can be proven. If they carry out orders without question, then there may still be use for them. If not…there are solutions to such problems. Consider yourselves the backup plan in case they fail. I want confirmed capture or death by the time mission is completed…I trust that you two of all people are equipped to handle this. There's no way that Naruto will raise a finger against you."

"What about the girl?" the woman asked coldly.

"She is being kept safe for the time being; she'll serve us well in the end."

"And the boy?" the woman asked again.

"He's doing our job for us. Let's leave him be for now."

"Understood. Is there anything else?" the man asked coldly.

"No, just be on alert and do your jobs. Dismissed."

The two masked ninja exited the office the way they came, allowing Uragi to get back to work once again…Until he heard a knock at the door.

"Yes."

A familiar, attractive middle-aged woman with short black hair and wearing a black gi opened the door.

"Excuse me my Lord, but I thought I heard voices coming from inside here and I didn't have anyone listed on your schedule for this hour."

"No, no, it was nothing Shizune. I was just rehearsing a speech."

Shizune did not do or say anything for a moment, "…Oh, alright then. I think my lunch break is nearly here anyway so…"

"That's alright; you can go ahead and go."

"Arigato, my Lord."

Shizune closed the door behind her, silently contemplating what she had just heard.

'Naruto…Sakura…Hanami…Shinachiku…I've got to inform the others, **now!**'

Shizune took off out of the Hokage Tower through the Academy in search of the exit. She needed to warn Lady Tsunade, Kakashi, and anyone else that would listen of what was going on.

Inside his office, Uragi sat contemplating. 'Well…this could be a problem.'

* * *

Shikadai was stunned at what he was seeing. The squared-off hole in the ceiling did indeed lead to a room with four heavily padded walls and no doors or windows.

What stunned Shikadai was that there was one other person inside the room…exactly the person they were looking for! Hanami was sitting in the middle of the room, bruises all over her. Some of the poor girl's clothes appeared to be ripped, clearly from being in a struggle. The girl was crying, hard, and depending on however long she may have been in here, she may have been crying for several days.

Shikadai and Hanami had never been close or anything, but her brother was one of his closest friends, and she was only seven years old. Seeing a little girl in a horrific situation like this brought the boy's piss to a boil.

He crawled back down to tell the others.

"Well, what did you see?" asked Chōchō.

"She's here."

"Hanami?" asked Tsuki.

"Yeah; she's all alone up there…and she looks to be in bad shape. Her clothes are all torn and she's got bruises all over her body."

The other kids all got really scared and really angry all at once. Hanami was one of the sweetest kids they knew, and they all knew how much Shinachiku loved her. If somebody hurt her in any way, then her family was going to gut them any which way they could.

"Anything else?" Inojin asked.

"She'd crying. I don't know how long she's been down here, but she may have been crying ever since her parent's left."

"That poor girl," Burandon said with sympathy.

"Is she alone?" Ōkami asked with a clear tent of anger in his voice.

"Yes, I don't see any Anbu or shinobi up there with her. We need to get to her."

"Wait," Bagu interrupted, "if she's all alone and there are guards outside the house, then this could all be some sort of trap."

"But we must do something," Burandon countered.

"Burandon's right," Shikadai said. "Trap or not, we've got a little girl up there, our friend, who needs our help. Besides, the walls are heavily padded and it is a panic room. I'm pretty sure the room is soundproof."

"Be careful when you get her attention; she's probably really scared," Tsuki warned.

"I know."

With that, Shikadai leaped up to grab the sides of the opening again and pulled himself back up.

"Psst! Hanami! Hanami can you hear me?"

The pink-haired, blue-eyed girl opened her eyes and look in the direction of the voice, tears long-since stained her face.

"W-Whose there?"

"It's Shikadai! I'm here with Inojin, Chōchō, Ōkami, Tsuki, Bagu and Burandon! We all came here looking for you! Does any one else know you're here?"

"N-No. I don't think so."

"Okay, just wait there, we're all coming up."

"Shikadai signaled for the others to follow him up into the room as he pulled himself up. One-by-one they all pulled themselves out of the tunnel and into the secret room. The two girls instinctively ran over to Hanami and embraced her in a hug, a maternal instinct kicking in even at their young age.

"Thank goodness you're safe, we were so worried," Tsuki said.

"Tell you what sweetie, as soon as we get ourselves out of this mess, Anko-sensei and I will treat you to all the dango you can eat. That will make you feel better," Chōchō said.

"Where's…where's my mommy and daddy?" Hanami asked in worry. "The bad men said that they were traitors."

"We don't know," Inojin said. "They fled the village and our parent's were put on a ten-man squad to find them."

Burandon decided to step in, "But fear not Hanami, for neither we nor our parent's believe that they are truly corrupt! Most assuredly our parents will bring them back to the village upon learning the truth of this dreadful conspiracy!"

Hanami could just stare at the green-clad boy, still sad.

Ōkami elbowed the big-eyebrowed Genin with the black mop top. "Hey Burandon, use less pomp and circumstance next time you want to make her feel better!"

"Gomen, gomen!"

"H-How did you all know I was here?" Hanami asked.

"Your brother confided in me the purpose of the tunnel leading to this room after I stumbled across it in training one day," Bagu answered.

"Anyway," Shikadai interrupted, "Hanami, we're all glad you're safe, but we need to know what happened to you and how you got here."

Hanami, clearly with some pain in her heart, recalled the memory of what happened the day that her parent's disappeared…

* * *

"And so children, who can tell me all three prohibitions that if unchecked may one day bring a shinobi to his or her ruin?" The instructor saw a hand quickly rise up in eagerness. "Yes, Hanami?"

"Shino-sensei, the three prohibitions are alcohol, money and sex."

"That's correct…although you really didn't need to be so blunt about that third one Hanami."

One of her classmates called out, "Hey, as often as her parent's do it, who can blame her?"

The whole class laughed at the boy's perverted joke, much to Hanami's embarrassment.

"All right, that's enough!" Shino called out to bring the class to order. "Now then, can anybody tell me—?"

Shino was cut off by a door swinging open and a squad of armed Anbu storming in.

"What's going on?" Shino asked.

"Pardon the interruption Aburame-sensei," one of the Anbu answered, "but there's been a disturbance and we need to put the Academy on lockdown! We need you and the children to come with us immediately."

"Has anyone informed the Hokage yet?"

"Aburame-sensei…I'm afraid Lord Hokage _is_ the disturbance."

"What?!"

"We've no time to explain right now, please come with us!"

Shino turned to his students, "Alright class, everyone stay in single-file as we get to the safety area. Don't be frightened, everything's under control."

The students all got out of their seats and lined up to exit the building. But as the children began exiting the classroom, Hanami, who happened to be the last person in line, was grabbed by one of the two Anbu guarding the doorway, gagged with the Anbu's hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming for help, and quickly poked with a syringe containing some sort of red liquid. At the same time, the other Anbu produced a clone that then performed a transformation jutsu on itself to perfectly replicate Hanami, its chakra signature precise enough to not draw too much attention. The fake Hanami exited the classroom to join her classmates.

"Hanami, don't fall behind!" Shino said. "We don't know what going on but we need to stick together."

"Gomen Shino-sensei," Hanami apologized, "the Anbu were just letting me know that my dad was going to be all right."

"Oh…okay then; just don't wander off."

As the impostor Hanami stayed with her group, the Anbu dragged the real Hanami with them out of the window, her mouth still covered to muffle any screams for help.

Once outside the building, Hanami stepped on her handler's foot, causing him to yell in pain as she broke away. The other Anbu tried grabbing for her, but she was able to use her taijutsu training to the block his blows…barely; she was still an Academy student after all.

And yet, she was also the daughter of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, so even at seven-years old, she wasn't going to go down without a fight!

"Alright, let's see how you guys handle this!" She pumped chakra into her fist and slammed it into the ground. "SHARRANO!"

…The ground barely shook.

'What? I don't get it; mommy taught me how to do this, so why isn't it working?'

The Anbu smirked to themselves as they approached the girl.

"Alright, that's it!" She tried gathering her chakra again, this time into her hand…Nothing was happening.

'What was I thinking? I got onii-chan to show me how he does the Rasengan, but daddy still hasn't taught it to _me_ yet!'

The girl was getting scarred now as the two Anbu kept coming. "My daddy is going to beat you both up for this!"

"HA!" one of the Anbu laughed. "Your mother and father are traitors to the village. We've got teams of ninja going to arrest them right now!"

The blood drained from the girl's face. "No…no you're lying!"

"Afraid not kid. Now why don't you come with us and make this easy on yourself?"

The Anbu grabbed her arm and she was forced to rely on her taijutsu again to break away. But both Anbu used their years of training in ninjutsu and taijutsu to hold the spunky girl off. The result was a truly gruesome sight…the cute, kind, lovable daughter of two of the ninja world's greatest heroes getting beaten to a pulp by two of her village's own ninja.

The pain was terrible, or at least the worst that's she's ever had to go through up to that point. The Anbu were leaving her beaten and bruised, her clothes tearing from all of the carnage.

She needed to get away, but how could she when they had her pined to the ground, her chakra barely working, and in this much pain?

She had been taught that a lady should never do this unless she had no choice, but that time was clearly now…Hanami extended both of her fists and punched both men hard in their groins.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!"

Both men were forced to grab their crotches in pain and Hanami got away, limping as fast as she could move. She was lucky she had enough time make it out of the Anbu's sight before they recovered and came running after her.

Even for a little girl, she knew that she needed to do something drastic to get away. Then she remembered how these Anbu had tricked Shino-sensei into thinking she was still with the group. So, using all of the control and willpower she had, she gathered what precious little she had left of her rapidly draining chakra and made a familiar hand sign.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

In a puff of smoke, an identical copy of Hanami appeared. As the real one ducked somewhere the Anbu would not find her, the clone stood behind for the Anbu to catch up to.

"So," one of the traitors said, "thought you could get away from us huh?" He backhanded the poor girl. "You little bitch!"

"Come on," the other Anbu said as he grabbed her arm, "you're coming with us to a safe house until we can find a use for you."

As the Anbu dragged the clone away, the real Hanami started moving, doing all she could to stay out of sight, until she made it clear out of the main village and back to her house. There were already guards outside blocking her way in.

But then she remembered something her parent's had showed her and her brother when they were kids. She sneaked over to a small grassy hill and lifted a wooden panel covered in grass. The panel hid a secret tunnel to a panic room hidden in the basement level of her house. She got inside and closed the panel before any Anbu noticed anything.

Hanami, beaten and bruised, was forced to stumble through darkness as the tunnel kept going, until at last she saw a light at the end of the tunnel, which came from a square opening in the ceiling; this was the only way in or out of the panic room short of her dad's Flying Thunder God Technique or taking some really drastic measures.

Using what strength she had left, she pulled herself up and crawled into the middle of the room. She stayed there for days crying, about her pain, about her parents, about her brother, about everything…

* * *

…Hanami broke into tears again as she finished her story. The kids all felt several emotions at once. Horror at all this little girl was put through, wonder at her level of resourcefulness for her age, and anger at the ones who did this to her.

No words were said as all of them were drawn to her like a magnet, enveloping Hanami in a hug.

"Do not worry Hanami; we shall get you out of here!" Burandon promised.

"I really hate to be the pessimist here," Bagu said, "but that might be difficult, given that the only ways out are by either going back down the tunnel, which may have the guards waiting for us on the other side for all we know, or by blowing up one of these walls, which will immediately call attention to ourselves."

"I hate to admit it, but Bagu's got a point." Shikadai confessed. "Jeez this is troublesome."

"So what do we do now?" Chōchō asked worriedly.

Shikadai, who had led them all this far and helped them all succeed in finding Hanami, who was the son of the Hokage's adviser and one of the most brilliant strategists of his generation, could only come up with one response to that question. "I have no idea…"

* * *

The two lovers had officially crossed into the Land of Sound. They knew what they were looking for, but actually finding one of Orochimaru's hidden factories was still no easy task.

"Do we have any idea what we're doing here?" Sakura asked. "Orochimaru wasn't the kind of person to reopen one of his hidden laboratories once it's been discovered."

"No," Naruto answered, "but if I can hone in on a nearby chakra signature, maybe that can help."

"Oh, you mean when you enter Sage Mode?"

"Yeah." Naruto looked at his wife and saw something was bothering her. "What's the matter?"

"If you can sense people's chakra from far away, why didn't you try using it back home to find out where Hanami was?"

"I tried that, but some how I couldn't detect her chakra anywhere no matter how hard I focused. It was like she had no chakra at all. I don't get—"

Naruto stopped his explanation when a realization came over him. He turned to Sakura and saw that her mind was headed the same way. She pulled out the syringe of red liquid she carried on her.

"Oh my God," Sakura gasped…before grasping the syringe and nearly breaking it. "If those bastards lay a finger on my little girl—"

"Sakura," Naruto interrupted, "we'll be back for her, but right now we need to first complete our mission."

Sakura pocketed the syringe again and sighed, "Fine."

With that, Naruto sat down on the forest floor, his legs crossed and his arms folded as he closed his eyes to meditate. There was no noise around save for the gust of the wind, the chirping of birds, and all other sounds of nature. The orange-clad ninja master remained completely still for several moments, taking in the natural energy around him as the toads of Mount Myōboku had trained him to do back when he was a teenager.

After finally gathering enough natural energy, his eyes snapped open, revealing that they have changed from their familiar cerulean blue to a goldish yellow color, with the pupils represented as small black lines in the center. Around the outside of his eyes were orange markings.

"Do you have something?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, I'm sensing a strong chakra about 500 meters from here, in that direction." He reached out and pointed the way, knowing that by moving he would stop his absorption of natural energy, thus cancelling out his Sage Mode.

"You plan on leaving shadow clones behind to absorb more natural energy while we go searching for whoever that chakra belongs to?"

"Yep. Let's go."

Naruto got up and made a familiar hand sign. Leaving a clone behind to meditate, he and Sakura took off in the direction of the chakra source. After about 250 meters, Naruto's natural energy ran out, so he reversed-summoned his clone to lend him the natural energy he absorbed. They made it to the source of the chakra signature and, after searching, they found it was coming from a small building, shaped more like a bunker. It was locked by a chain, but Sakura used her chakra-enhanced strength to simply snap the chain off.

They opened the door to find a darkly-lit flight of stairs. There was a conveniently placed torch burning on the wall, supposedly to provide light for whoever was down here. Like pretty much all of Orochimaru's hideouts, there was a vibe of creepiness to this place that could not be denied.

"Who do you suppose is down there?" Sakura questioned.

"I'm not totally sure," Naruto answered, "but either way we're not going to find the answers unless we go down there."

"Do you have any more natural energy left?"

"No, actually it should be running out right about…now." On cue, his eyes returned to normal and the boost of power the young man had received was gone. "So long Sage Mode."

Sakura smiled at him as she cupped the underside of his chin. "Look on the bright side; you're way more handsome with blue eyes."

Naruto actually blushed a little bit, "Thanks babe."

Sakura showed her gratitude for his compliment by planting a loving kiss on her husband's lips. After parting, they both descended down the staircase, Naruto picking up the torch and holding it in front of him to light the way.

When they made it to the bottom of the stairs, they found rows of desks, empty and covered in dust and cobwebs.

"I never pegged Orochimaru for an office guy," Naruto quipped.

The couple kept searching, opening several more doors as they explored this underground facility. They came to one single door that led to a room filled with more desks and file cabinets, There were also four framed photos hanging on the far wall.

"Isn't that Orochimaru as a kid?" Sakura asked, "Back when he was still a Leaf Village Genin?"

"Yeah, back when he was trained by the Third Hokage," Naruto confirmed. "That must be who the grown up in the photo is."

"Then those other two kids—"

Naruto finished her sentence for her, "Pervy Sage and Baachan."

"Wow…they're so young."

"Yeah, kind of like us when you think about it. Both of them were really close."

Sakura thought back to what her former master had revealed to her the day before this whole mess started. "You have no idea…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Sakura noticed the other photos on the wall. "That one; that's him and Anko."

"Yeah. Poor girl spent the rest of her life working to get out of her master's shadow."

There was yet another photo. "That's him and Kabuto."

"Must be from when they first met. I can't believe the damned snake would take pictures of all this, it's so unlike him."

But it was the last photo that got to them the most. It was a picture of Orochimaru, Kabuto…and Sasuke. He was still young back then, and had a look of impatience on his face. He was dressed in his signature blue shirt and black shorts from when he was still a Genin, meaning this was likely taken soon after he first left the village.

Neither Naruto nor Sakura could find words to say as they looked at the photo. So instead they just pressed on with their search. Naruto looked around at some old shelves, ones that might have held some of Orochimaru's scrolls or experimental equipment years before. He noticed something; there was a thin, open space in between two of the shelves that a gust of wind could be heard passing through. He also noticed while walking up to the shelf that the opposite side had left scratch marks on the floor.

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

"I'm just curious; if you're already working in a secret laboratory…" Naruto got his fingers in-between the cracks and pushed. Just as he thought, the shelf slid to the right and revealed what it had been hiding. "…Why do you need to hide the stairs?"

Sakura was just as interested in this twist as her husband was as both of them descended down yet another flight of stairs. When they made it all the way down, they found an old, very dirty, yet surprisingly high-tech for it's time, miniature laboratory. No doubt that the upper floor was mainly for office and living space, but this was a place where Orochimaru performed some of his _real_ experiments.

"This equipment looks at least thirty years old," Sakura pointed out. "These computers must date back at least to when we were kids."

"Indeed they do."

It was not Naruto's voice that said that. Both of them turned to the source of the voice as a figure came out of the shadows. The person was a tall man garbed in a maroon-colored cloak with a hood that resembled a serpent's head, with white, red and yellow markings meant to resemble eyes. The man himself had scaly patterns on his face and had unkempt bowl cut hair that was ash-gray in color. His onyx eyes also had purple markings on them. But the most striking feature was a long, white snake that protruded from the bottom end of his cloak because it was fused to his abdomen.

"Kabuto!" Both of them shouted on sight.

Kabuto Yakushi, traitor to Konohagakure and former spy and apprentice to Orochimaru, The Snake Sannin, smirked and let out a brief chuckle to acknowledge his two unexpected guests.

"Naruto Uzumaki, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, apprentice to Kakashi Hatake and Master Jiraiya, and _former_ Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village; born October 10, ninja registration number 012607." He then turned to his other guest. "Sakura Haruno, daughter of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno, apprentice to Kakashi Hatake and Lady Tsunade, and _former_ chief medical ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village; born March 28, ninja registration number 012601." He put his head back in the middle, addressing them both. "Both married at age 22, giving birth to two children, Shinachiku and Hanami Uzumaki." Kabuto put on a disturbingly large grin. "It is good to see old friends again after so long."

"We're **not** your friends!" Sakura asserted.

"Oh come now; let's not be mean. You are guests in my current residence after all…Or did you come here looking for someone else?"

"Not that it's any business of yours," Naruto answered rudely, "but I sensed a chakra signature coming from this place while we were trying to track down one of Orochimaru's labs."

"Ah, I see, and you mistook my chakra for Lord Orochimaru's, yes?" Naruto did not answer. "Don't be embarrassed; ever since I absorbed some of my former master's cells and took on much of his appearance, my chakra has born a striking similarity to his. So…how may I help you? Don't worry I'm unarmed and my friend won't bite." Kabuto said the last part while petting the head of the large snake fused to his body.

The pair looked at each other, silently asking each other if this was their best course of action, before turning back to face him.

"You probably already know that we've both been set up and chased out of our own village, right?" Naruto asked already knowing the answer, which was confirmed when Kabuto nodded his head.

"We've uncovered some evidence that might give us clues to what is happening back home," Sakura explained, "and we needed to find a laboratory where we can perform an investigation."

"I see; well I can certainly help you with that. What kind of evidence have you brought exactly?"

Naruto pulled out his scroll while Sakura brought out both of her syringes filled with blue and red liquid.

Kabuto's eyes widened only slightly. "I see…so it has begun then."

The couple reacted in alarm. "What's begun?" Naruto demanded.

"Taka's revolution of the entire ninja world, starting with their infiltration of the Five Great Shinobi Countries."

"What?!" Naruto shouted.

"That can't be," Sakura countered, "Taka was disbanded after the war. Sasuke was reformed and he and Karin got married and had a daughter—"

"And yet he also spent a great deal of time outside the village, didn't he? Yes, the old Taka, the four man squad that you knew, _that_ Taka had disbanded. But in its place a new one has emerged, one far larger, working from within the shadows across our whole world to realize dear Sasuke's dream from the end of the war…A dream of a world without a kage system, only a world under its unified control…and now they have found the weapons that will make that dream a reality."

Naruto's eyes practically bulged out of their sockets in realization. "The Chakra Gems…"

Kabuto smirked, "Precisely."

"No," Naruto shook his head in denial, "no you're lying! Sasuke is a changed man! He's our friend, not some madman leading some Akatsuki-wannabe crime syndicate!"

"Let me correct you right there Naruto. The Akatsuki were a group of criminals that defected from their village's to enact their plans. Taka are a conglomerate of double agents working from within that system to eventually bring about its undoing."

"This can't be real…" Sakura said lost.

"Taka was originally founded by Sasuke merely to track down and help him get revenge on Itachi; by the end of the war they had changed much. They went from accomplishing that goal, to joining the Akatsuki to hunt down the tailed beasts, to aiding the Allied Shinobi Forces during the war. But then Sasuke concluded that revolution was needed."

"No…" Naruto said softly.

"The new Taka was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. But what they had come to realize was that if you tried to take that freedom, tried to bring that world order down, they resist. The war taught them much; true change could not be done by conquest from the outside but from within. After the war, the Allied Shinobi Forces continued and endured to this day. Peace…to Taka this world's definition of that word is merely a stalemate until the next inevitable crisis. Thus, the new Taka grew, a beautiful parasite, _inside_ the Five Great Nations themselves. For seventeen years, Taka has been secretly feeding crisis, weeping war. And when history did not cooperate…history was changed."

"That's impossible; the kages would have stopped them," Sakura objected.

"The kages have all been blinded by an era of peace; Naruto himself is living proof of that." Naruto was fighting to hold in the rage that was welling up within him.

"How do you know all of this?" Sakura questioned.

"Because Taka came to me some time ago and told me all of this. They thought that I could be a valuable agent for them…but I had no interest in such things so I refused." Kabuto paused for only a moment. "Anyway, Taka has already infiltrated all of the Hidden Village's ranks and developed a means to give them an edge against even the most powerful of shinobi. Once the seven Chakra Gems are all found and brought together, Taka's new world order will arise." Kabuto turned to see the Orange Hokage fuming with anger. "Funny, you made it your life's mission to bring peace to this world and end the cycle of hatred, yet you were blind to the cycle of revolution that was brewing right next to you. You lost Naruto; your reign amounts to the same as your life: a zero sum—"

Kabuto did not get to say anymore as Naruto had finally lost control and landed a powerful left hook right into his jaw, knocking the snake-man to the ground…Somehow, it made him feel no better. Kabuto merely collected his bearings and stood up again. "As I was saying."

Naruto didn't want any of this to go on any longer than it had too, "What's in this scroll?"

Sakura followed suit, "And what do these serums do?"

Kabuto answered. "I think you already know the answer to the second question Sakura. The blue serum is a special chakra shielding agent that allows someone who has it in their bloodstream to use their own chakra techniques, but provides a shield within range of the skin that nullifies the chakra of others. On the other had, the red serum does to opposite; it nullifies one's _own_ chakra reserves and leaves them totally vulnerable to other's chakra attacks."

"And what about the scroll?" Naruto asked again. "Does it contain the secret to how to make the serums?"

"That, I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about that scroll. And that's the truth."

Naruto sighed, than he punched the wall in fury. "God damn it!"

"Naruto…" Sakura was his wife, his rock, his anchor in what was supposed to be his times of need…which was why it devastated her that she had no clue what to say to the man she loved in this moment.

It was then that Kabuto interrupted. "If you came here to examine those serums, maybe to develop an antidote, the lab is all yours."

"Say what?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"That's right, go ahead. I don't care one way or another…Unless you'd rather go find your son instead."

And that's when it hit them, when pieces fell into place. When their worst fears came to light. Sasuke began Taka, and now Taka was back to try to take over the world and planning to use the Chakra Gems to do it…and right now Sasuke and Shinachiku were searching for one in the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village.

"Son of a bitch," Naruto muttered under his breath.

"Naruto" Sakura asked in terror, "you don't really think…?"

"I don't know Sakura…I just don't know." Naruto clenched his fists. "But one way or another Sasuke and I need to have a talk."

* * *

Shinachiku woke up the next morning. He was still a bit groggy after the blow that he took to the neck last night.

'Wait, blow to the neck…Oh shit!'

He quickly looked around to see where he was. Sure enough, Sasuke was there staring at him.

"About time you woke up kid; we've got work to do."

Shinachiku would have retorted, had he not noticed somebody else next to his godfather. She was the same age as Sasuke was, a woman with a fit figure, crimson eyes, fair skin, and red hair which she wore in a strange manner, short and spiky on one side, while longer and straight on the other side, there was also a buzzing apparent on her left temple. Highlighting her eyes were a pair of brown glasses. She wore a lavender uniform that exposed her midriff, much like his Aunt Ino did, coupled with black pants with black sandals. She also carried a pouch around her midsection. While the boy could not see it, her clothes covered numerous bite marks, both from use of her Heal Bite Technique and from "special nights" that she shared with her husband.

"Aunt Karin?"

"Hello Shinachiku, it's so good to see you again."

The boy noticed there were still more people were there as well. One was a lean-built man with straight white hair with a light-blue tint, purple eyes and pointed teeth like a shark. He was dressed in sleeveless purple shirt, blue pants, sandals, and a belt around his waist with water bottles attached to it. He also had another belt strapped to his chest to which he had attached a gigantic sword with holes in it.

There was also a tall, muscular man with swept up orange hair, red-orange eyes, a strong jawline, and who had a calm disposition. He was dressed in black pants, a pale blue shirt, and brown sandals.

But it was the third person that alarmed the boy.

"Hey kid, what's up? Remember me, Randamu? I fought you! Yes I did, yes I did!"

"Stay away from me!" Shinachiku demanded in panic.

"Well, good to see you too brat." The masked man then folded his arms and started muttering to himself. "Didn't bribe the author to bring me back into this fanfic just for this crap!"

"SHINACHIKU!"

The boy felt a wave of surprise and relief at the sound of that voice. From behind his godparents came a girl his age with fair complexion, onyx hair and eyes, the hair she wore in a straight shoulder-length style. Her eyes were highlighted by a pair of red-rimmed glasses. She was dressed in a black vest adorned with the Uchiha clan symbol, which also had a small version of the Uzumaki clan symbol in the red portion, over a white button-up shirt with red trim, white shorts and black sandals. The girl ran out and embraced the blonde-haired boy in a tight hug.

"S-Sarada?!" Shinachiku asked blushing.

The girl, realizing the emotional outburst she'd just had, pulled back from the boy blushing.

"Umm…yeah, I mean, yes it's me…It's been a long time Shinachiku."

The boy smiled at her, blushing harder. "Yeah, it has."

This caused the girl to blush just as hard while smiling warmly.

"All right you two, that's enough!" Sasuke interrupted. "Shinachiku, this is Suigetsu and Jūgo, they were teammates of mine when I was younger. Sarada and your Aunt Karin you know, obviously, and Randamu you met the other day."

"What's going on?!" Shinachiku demanded. "What is this _really_ all about?!"

Sasuke approached to boy, "Alright kid, you wanted answers…" Sasuke pulled out his sword, "…and you'll get them."

The boy got nervous, as did the girl who was still within inches of him.

"Dad, what are you doing…?"

* * *

Holy crap! The shit just hit the fan BIG TIME!

Let's address the obvious reference first; yes, I paid homage once again to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." Yes, I just turned Taka into Hydra! This was one of the ideas I had in my mind from the very beginning of this project, and I hope the reveal was as shocking as I hoped it would be. We've been left wondering ever since the series ended what became of Taka and now we have an answer. And yes, I do know that it is likely to be addressed in one of the upcoming epilogue books that will be released in Japan soon, but I had this on my mind since before that came out.

You may remember that at least twice in the story so far, characters related to this conspiracy have said the line "Hail Taka"...now we know what that line means and what it's a reference to.

I'm really not sure why "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was such an inspiration to me while crafting this story, except that, with Naruto now having fulfilled his dream of becoming Hokage, taking the series in this new political thriller-inspired direction seemed like an interesting way to go.

As I was writing this chapter I really thought that I would stage the scene in the underground lab with Orochimaru. But as I got to that scene, for some reason I thought that the scene would be a bit more surprising and somehow flow better if I used Kabuto instead. The whole scene itself is directly based on Cap and Black Widow's visiting the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base at the camp where Steve was trained. Therefore, Kabuto is cast in the Arnim Zola role, minus the computerized A.I. concept.

The scene with Uragi was also inspired by a scene from that movie. I won't say which one, but you can probably guess...Also, I have a crazy idea with those two masked ninja he sent...but I'm not telling yet!

Some of you might have noticed Naruto's closing thought to the opening scene at the Valley of the End...that may or may not be foreshadowing to something in the future.

I felt really bad for having to put Hanami through so much this chapter, but it was to make a point of how bad Taka can really be and make you want our heroes to take them out.

In speaking of Hanami, I should address the two shadow clones made of her during the flashback. The one that the Anbu made was meant to clean up a potential continuity error I discovered about why Shino, Hanami's teacher at the Academy, hasn't noticed that one of his student's, the daughter of one of his best friends, has gone missing, and therefore why he never mentioned it in the previous chapters. I'm really not sure if I did a good enough job of selling it without making Shino look stupid, but I tried.

The second shadow clone is the one that Taka _thinks_ they have in their custody to use as leverage in their plans. It was made with what precious little chakra she had left before the serum nullified it completely. The biggest thing I am struggling with here is how long that shadow clone can last...but then again, considering who her father is, maybe it's not so far fetched after all.

Hanami getting the red serum inside her was done both for drama and to rectify possible continuity errors. I needed an explanation for why the kids would find her in such a damaged state and so weak instead of trying to use her chakra to heal herself as I have to assume her mom gave her _some_ amount of training in medical ninjutsu.

The other issue it rectifies is something that maxslayer10 brought up in his review of Chapter 10. I forgot that, with Sage Mode, Naruto should have been able to sense where Hanami was; but, if she has the serum in her blood, that means that her chakra is nullified and might serve to explain why Naruto couldn't sense her.

The line that Naruto says before he and Sakura leave the Valley of the End, "Let's get the hell out of here," was intended as an homage to the classic "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever." The context of the line is obviously very different than what Kirk went through in that episode, but the tone and level of weight that being in that place puts on Naruto while he's there creates similar feelings of sadness and regret over all that he had lost both times he and Sasuke fought there. Just imagine Naruto saying the line the same way that William Shatner says it in the episode.

We at last get to see the original Taka again and, since Kishimoto has yet to reveal new designs for them either for "The Last" or for Chapter 700, I had to come up with new designs myself...which ended up looking nearly identical to their Part II counterparts...Yeah, didn't have much imagination on that one.

I also finally, officially, introduced Sarada into this chapter. Since she is meant to be a twelve-year old Genin and the daughter of Sasuke and Karin, as opposed to still being an Academy student and Sasuke and Sakura's daughter (groan) as she is in the official ending, I decided that I wanted to come up with a new look for her that was less, err, bookwormish than how she dressed as a little girl. Her design is partially inspired by a fanart I found on 1824607 by Emily x Madeleine.

Well, I think that's all I've got for now. I hope I still have you all hooked and anxious to come back to see what happens next time.

Until next time...HAIL TAKA!


	15. Chapter 15--Revelations & Complications

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

In all seriousness, sorry this one took so long, but I had the idea for my Valentine's Day one-shot, "Our First Valentine's Day", and I wanted to make sure I got it out there in time for the holiday.

Before I get into the chapter, I would like to address the review of Chapter 14 by SilentRaider52. You were concerned that the story needed some good things in it after so much tension, and that he was worried about Sasuke turning out to be the villain. I think with this chapter I did an okay job of addressing both of those concerns while still keeping things moving. I hope you all like it.

Well then, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 15: Revelations and Complications**

Sasuke Uchiha stood before his daughter and his godson, sword drawn. Sarada looked worried and confused; why was her own father pulling his sword out at her and Shinachiku?

Shinachiku was prepared for the worst. This was the moment when his godfather was finally going to give him answers, and already the Uchiha was showing his true colors.

The blonde Genin anticipated a sword strike that would surely end his life…

…But that sword strike never came. Instead, Sasuke stabbed his weapon into the ground at the boy's feet.

To say the least, the boy was confused. "What are you doing?"

"Dad?" Sarada asked in confusion.

"Shinachiku," Sasuke began, "I know that I have not been entirely honest with you or your parents during this adventure. I regret that, but I had my reasons. You followed your shinobi instincts and were wise not to trust me." He sighed before continuing on, "I was hoping I could spare you from this, but it looks like things are going to have to change now."

"What are you talking about?" Shinachiku asked. "What is going on? What was that thing you did with your sword just now?"

"That," Sasuke gestured towards his weapon, "is a proof of trust. You know how powerful I really am kid, I could have gutted a Genin like you any time I wanted, but I didn't. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. But instead, I'm leaving fate in _your_ hands."

"Say what?!"

"If you want to be open-minded and hear me out, to trust me a little longer, then you're welcome to. If not…you've got a perfectly good weapon to strike me down with. Don't worry; I won't think less of you either way."

Shinachiku, Sarada, even Karin was stunned at this sudden turn of events. Sasuke was literally _inviting_ Shinachiku to murder him if he felt he couldn't be trusted!

"Sasuke?!" Karin shouted, but Sasuke merely raised his hand up to stop her.

Suigetsu and Jūgo didn't say anything, just looked on in interest at whatever was about to take place, though Suigetsu seemed to be watching in a bit more amusement.

As for Randamu…he was sitting their enjoying all the tension as he pulled up the bottom half of his mask so he could snack on a bag of popcorn that he got from seemingly nowhere. "This suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."

After a few silent seconds of not doing anything, Shinachiku at last began to speak. "You show up at my house out of nowhere to lure me on this crazy mission without my friends, my family, or even Konohamaru-sensei. You plot with this red masked whacko behind-my-back while he tried to kill me. You apparently lied to me and my parents about you and Aunt Karin breaking up. And now you're telling me that you're okay with me _killing_ you?!"

Sasuke smirked, "…Yeah."

Shinachiku stood up and grasped the blade, "There are so many reasons why I should…"

He stood still for what felt like an eternity…And then he let go of the blade. "But I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter. And I'd especially not want to leave Sarada without a dad."

Sarada was left speechless. He was right; he was in a situation where he had every reason in the world not to trust them. Common shinobi sense mandated that he not pass up this golden opportunity to secure his own life's safety. And yet he was…for _her_…

"Besides…" Shinachiku continued, "…my dad didn't work to end this world's cycle of hatred just to see his own son kill his best friend."

Sasuke, in a rather uncharacteristic moment, put on a sincere smile as he decided to move forward. "Very good, let's move on then."

Shinachiku sat back down next to Sarada, paying such close attention that he failed to notice the raven-haired girl's worried stare at him, as if she were silently hoping he would understand.

"Do you remember the unknown enemy that I told you was after the Chakra Gems?" Sasuke asked. The boy nodded his head. "Well, the truth is that I know exactly who the enemy is…Taka."

Shinachiku's eyes widened in alarm. "_Wh-What?!_ Then _you guys_ have been trying to steal the gems this whole time?!"

"See, _this_ is why I wanted to keep this a secret from you," Sasuke explained. "Yes, Taka is collecting the Chakra Gems, but _not_ the same Taka that I founded when I was a teenager."

"I don't understand."

"That's what I'm trying to explain if you'd be patient and let me speak." The boy frowned at that remark, while Sarada looked at him with sympathy. "The original Taka that I founded after I betrayed Orochimaru was a four man squad, which I first I named Hebi, made up of myself, your Aunt Karin, and our friends Suigetsu and Jūgo." He gestured to the two former missing nin, who each nodded and waved to the boy.

The one-armed Uchiha continued, "When I first brought this team together I did so to finally fulfill my dream of getting my revenge on Itachi…and I did. But after it was over I was taken in by another, Obito Uchiha, who I _believed_ to really be Madara at the time. Back then he was working under the alias Tobi and was a member of the criminal organization known as the Akatsuki. He revealed to me the truth about what happened that night, about what was really behind Itachi's massacring of my clan. After that I was so consumed with revenge that I then swore to wipe out the Konoha leaders, and the village itself, for what it had done to my clan. We joined with Akatsuki out of convenience, they would help me to destroy Konoha, as Pain was readying to do anyway, and my team would help them in their hunt for the tailed beasts. That arrangement led us to attacking Killer B and earning the ire of the Fourth Raikage. For our actions, we were branded international criminals across all the shinobi nations. As so we remained until the war came. After I had resurrected Orochimaru to help me in my goals, he in turn used the Reanimation Jutsu to bring back the first four Hokage's, including your grandfather. They convinced me that the village was worth saving; so much so that I wanted to challenge your father to become the next Hokage. My team did their part in fighting off the enemy, and your parent's and I pretty much saved the entire world all by ourselves."

Sasuke sighed before he continued again, "But…after that battle with Kaguya was over, my mind was clouded with delusion once again, this time for revolution. I wanted to seal the tailed beasts away and wipe out _all_ the Kages, to create a world without governments, to start anew. I wanted to embrace my own loneliness and take on all of its hatred by myself…and I knew that your father was the only one who could stand in my way of that. Well…I'm sure you already know how our fight went after that."

The boy remained focused, taking in all that he was being told. Admittedly, much of this he had already read in his father's book, but he paid close attention nevertheless.

"After the war," Sasuke began again, "I had Taka disbanded as I finally agreed to return to the village to face judgment. I fully expected to either be given he death penalty or to spend the rest of my life in prison. But instead your father saved my life, literally, that day, and I knew that I needed to do something to make it up to him. I knew that I had much I needed to learn and perhaps more that I needed to do to make amends for a lifetime of mistakes. So after I left on my quest of redemption, I tracked down my old team and we set out to do some good in this world together. What I didn't see coming was that getting the band back together would also lead to me falling in love."

Karin smiled warmly as she took her husband's hand. She then took her turn talking to her godson. "It wasn't easy to be sure. We had a lot of things to work out first, namely one time he stabbed his Chidori straight through me just to kill Danzō." Poor Sasuke could only hang his head in shame at that moment. "But we we're able to work it out and here we are years later with a beautiful daughter at our side."

Sarada blushed in flattery at her mother's compliment, something Shinachiku noticed and smiled at himself.

"So there we were," Sasuke continued, "the original Taka was back together again to make amends for past sins, plus a fifth member in our ranks this time."

Sasuke turned to face Randamu who merely gave a wave and a "Yo!" as he kept eating his popcorn.

"And where did you find him?" Shinachiku asked with a noticeable tinge of rudeness.

"Trust me on this kid, you don't wanna know!" Suigetsu answered for them. "Sasuke, Karin, don't tell him! You shouldn't have told me, or Jūgo! But you did! So now I'm telling _you_," Suigetsu pointed to the boy, "you don't wanna know!"

Shinachiku looked to Sarada in confusion. "He's not joking; you _don't_ want to know where we found him."

"Umm…okay…So you guys _aren't_ some evil organization trying to take over the world or something?"

"No kid," Sasuke said. "The original Taka was back together, but at the same time another one had emerged, a huge underground organization stealing the Taka name, no doubt both to pervert the ideas of revolution I once believed in into plot for world domination and also to frame us, frame _me_, for their plans."

Shinachiku was stunned, "You're kidding me…"

"No I'm not. This new Taka is obviously much larger than my four-err, _five_-man squad, and have been working in the shadows across our whole world since the end of the war."

"In the shadows…?"

"Within the Five Great Shinobi Nations themselves. They want to create a world without a kage system, yes, but instead under its own unified control. They have already developed weapons to make that dream a reality, and now they have learned about the ultimate weapons…"

Shinachiku understood, "The Chakra Gems."

"Bingo," Sasuke confirmed.

Now Shinachiku understood something else as well, "That's why you lied to my parents about you and Aunt Karin breaking up. You didn't want to create suspicion or let anyone know they were helping you or to risk anyone coming after them in case this new Taka was found out," he turned to Sarada, "You wanted to protect your daughter."

"Exactly," Sasuke smirked. "You must have inherited your mother's brain kid; your father would be stretching every brain cell he has just to put that together."

"Hey! My dad is the greatest ninja in the world! He could kick you butt any day of the week!" He then realized his outburst and turned to, of all people, the girl that was right next to him, "No offense Sarada."

The Genin merely shrugged her shoulders and adjusted her glasses, "None taken." She didn't notice the vein of frustration that appeared on her father's head or the innocent chuckle from her mother.

"Okay, I _think_ I've got all of this," the boy contemplated, "Basically you got the old Taka back together to do some good in the world, but then you found out about a new Taka trying to take it over and that they want to use these Chakra Gems to do it. So you lied to everyone to keep Taka's identity a secret so no one would suspect you or your family of anything. Is that right?"

"You've got it," Jūgo spoke for the first time.

"Confusing, ain't it?" Randamu spoke up, before turning to the side as if he were looking straight into an invisible camera, "And who knows whether or not it's going to get any _more_ confusing?! DUM! DUM! DUM!"

"I have five questions though," Shinachiku interrupted. "First, how long have you known about this new Taka group? Second, who's in charge of it? Third, why did you have Randamu try to kill me if he's working with you? Fourth, what was this attack on the village that you were speaking to him about over the microphone? And fifth, why do you need me here when both your wife and daughter have Uzumaki blood too?"

"To answer your questions kid," Sasuke began, "one, I've known something was up since I heard the assassin at your parent's first wedding say 'Hail Taka' after the three of us knocked him out. Two, I'm not sure how far Taka really goes, but I do suspect a certain someone at the top in pulling the strings within Konoha."

For some reason Shinachiku was able to guess, "Uragi?"

The Uchiha nodded his head. "Three, Randamu's fighting with you was merely a test to see if you were even _remotely_ ready for what may come…you are. Four, the attack I was speaking of is Taka and Uragi's final move to seize power of the Hidden Leaf Village, and I fear that it may also apply to the other hidden villages as well. And five, the sources I've been told about told me that I actually needed _two_ people with Uzumaki blood to unlock the seal, and Sarada _insisted_ on us bringing you with us."

The blonde-haired boy turned to the girl, who blushed in embarrassment. "Sarada?"

"I…I just got worried about you that's all," she tried to justify. "What if you were in the village while Taka did something dangerous?"

Shinachiku decided to go ahead and accept that rather weak explanation.

"Sasuke always wants to find ways to make amends with your father," Karin added. "Our instincts told us that something big was coming and we all wanted you out of there in case it did. If we could have taken your daughter too we would have, but she was just too young to be given a mission away from the village yet."

"Besides," Sasuke went on, "I meant what I said back at your house that this mission would be a good opportunity for you to get some real experience in the field…_Both_ of you."

"_HUH?!"_ Shinachiku's head snapped towards the raven-haired, bifocaled girl.

"Yes Shinachiku…you and Sarada are going to recover the Chakra Gem _together_."

The two kids glanced at each and quickly turned away, both of them blushing deep red.

It was Randamu who broke the ice, "Ohhhh…awkward!"

* * *

Back in the panic room of the Uzumaki Mansion, the children were caught between a rock and a hard place. If they headed back the way they came, there could be a platoon of Anbu guards waiting for them. The only other ways out were by using Hanami's fathers Flying Thunder God Technique, which none of them knew, or to blow up the wall, which would surely attract attention from outside, and that's assuming that there was no one searching the _inside_ of the house for possible evidence to use against Hanami's parents.

"Well…we're all fucked!" Ōkami shouted.

"Our options do seem limited," Inojin concurred.

"There's got to be something we can do?" Chōchō argued.

"Yeah," Shikadai assessed, "but it looks like we may have to fight our way out of this mess one way or another…Ōkami, Tsuki, can either of you look through the wall to see if anyone else is down here in the basement level, or anywhere else in the house?"

"I'll try it." Tsuki let go of he comforting hug she was still giving Hanami as she gathered her chakra into her eyes to activate her kekki genki. "BYAKUGAN!"

The Izuzuka-Hyūga girl scanned the rest of the basement level for any signs of more intruders. "I'm seeing two Anbu down here."

"Let me guess," Bagu interrupted, "they're trying to to get into the vault?"

"No."

"Perhaps they are meddling around in the furnace and the electrical room?" Burandon guessed.

"No."

"Well, then they have to be in the storage room searching through boxes of the family's stuff," Shikadai had to assume.

"No not that either."

"Then what are they doing?" Chōchō asked.

"They're…" Tsuki couldn't believe it, "they're raiding the wine cellar."

All of the kids, Hanami included, had a dumbfounded expression and a sweatdrop on their faces.

"To be fair," Inojin interrupted, "my mom has said before that Lord Seventh and his wife's wine collection is the envy of the entire village."

"Dude, _everything_ about this house is the envy of the entire village!" Ōkami retorted. "Why else do you think that Hanami's dad chose to continue living here instead of moving into the Hokage Residence after his coronation?"

"Would all of you focus?!" Shikadai demanded to get their attention. "Look, as much of a drag as this is, those two slackers outside are still blocking one of our ways out of here. Right now we're lucky these walls are soundproof and that you'd need the Byakugan to see through them, but that means that we now have only one other option to get out of here."

They are turned toward the squared-off exit that they had entered from.

"I guess we have no choice," Bagu admitted.

"WAIT!" Tsuki yelled, "Somebody else is coming down the tunnel…_three_ people! I can't make out who they are though."

The kids all panicked. This was a disaster, it had to be Anbu heading their way and such a threat may be too far out of their range for a ragtag group of Genin like themselves.

"It would seem that we are at a disadvantage," Inojin pointed out.

"NO!"

It was Hanami, poor, innocent, hurt Hanami that made that declaration as she struggled to stand up again.

"Hanami, stay down, you're badly hurt! And your chakra's not working!" Chōchō begged.

"No! My brother wouldn't get scared, and mommy and daddy wouldn't either! Whatever happens we can take 'em!"

The kids were all impressed by the little girl's sense of determination, 'Just like Shinachiku,' some of them thought.

"Alright, everybody stand together around Hanami!" Shikadai ordered. "Keeping her safe in top priority!"

The kids all did as the Nara boy said, Burandon getting out some of the kunai hidden in his pouch, the twins both getting their Byakugan's activated and into a Gentle Fist pose, Chōchō covering Hanami's front, and Shikadai and Bagu getting into the familiar jutsu poses of their clans.

They could feel the chakra getting closer and closer. Any minute now they would be face-to-face with whoever was down there with them. Some of the boys had lines of sweat dripping down their faces, but they paid no mind to it.

'This is it!" Shikadai thought. 'Whoever is here is going to come up through that hole right now!'

As if on cue, a pair of hands pulled themselves up and into the room…It was an older shinobi, retired, with spiky silver hair and a mask covering the bottom half of his face. A scar ran across his left eye, indicating that something must have happened to it long ago, and yet both of his dark eyes appeared perfectly fine. The man closed his eyes and smiled beneath his mask as he gave the kids a friendly wave.

"Oh hi there. I hope we didn't frighten you kids."

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" they all shouted in relief.

The Copy Ninja pulled himself up into the room, making way for two more guests who came up one after the other. One was a brown haired man of similar age to Kakashi, but with a grimmer face and a sort of cracked metal helmet framing his head. The other was a much younger adult with brown hair, a handsome face and a large blue scarf wrapped around his neck.

"CAPTAIN YAMATO! KONOHAMARU-SENSEI!"

"Hey kids," Yamato addressed them. "This is an unexpected surprise."

"Yeah, well, we came down looking for—"

"HANAMI!" Konohamaru bolted to the girl as soon as he saw her. He wrapped the girl in an almost fatherly embrace. "Are you alright dear?"

Kakashi and Yamato both looked horrified when they noticed the poor girl's condition.

"What happened here?!" Kakashi demanded.

"We figured out that Hanami's been missing since her parent's disappeared," Shikadai explained. "So we decided to try and find her. Bagu remembered Shinachiku telling him about this hidden room inside her house, so we thought it was worth checking out a lead. We found her like this; some of the Anbu beat the crap out of her and she instinctively came here to escape. They used some sort of serum on her so she can't use her chakra."

"She can't do _what?!_" Yamato asked shocked.

"That's correct," Inojin confirmed. "She says the Anbu injected her with some kind of red serum that nullified her access to her chakra reserves."

"What are your three doing here?" Ōkami asked.

"Shizune overheard our Interim-Hokage plotting something inside his office, mentioning something about Hanami being kept somewhere safe." Kakashi explained. "As the one who originally informed Naruto that he was inheriting his parent's estate, I was one of the few who he trusted with telling about this hidden room he found. I guess we came to the same conclusion that you kids did."

"Kakashi-sensei," Bagu asked, "did any of the guards outside happen to see the three of you when you snuck in here?"

"No," Yamato answered, "we took special precautions to make sure that we weren't noticed or followed."

"And right now we need to get out of here," Konohamaru said. "Hanami needs a medic as soon as she can."

"Konohamaru-sensei," Tsuki spoke up, "I saw with my Byakugan two Anbu behind that wall raiding the wine cellar."

"Well" the Copy Ninja replied, "then we're just going to have to get out the way we came."

"That could result in the Anbu taking notice and capturing us as soon as we open the door," Yamato countered.

"True…but then again we're the famous Copy Ninja and son of the White Fang, an elite experiment by Orochimaru, and the heir to the Sarutobi clan. I'm sure we can make it through this."

"Well, you sure sound confident Kakashi," Konohamaru noted.

"More optimistic than confident, but I suppose some of Naruto's never-give-up attitude must have worn off on me." Kakashi turned to the children, "Alright kids, I need all of you to stay behind us as we scope out the outside. Hanami's safety is top priority, and if she really has her chakra blocked off, then it's going to be up to you kids to get her to Lady Tsunade and Shizune for healing. Is that understood?"

"HAI!" all the Genin said in unison.

"Alright, let's get out of here."

The Jōnin went down into the tunnel first, followed by the Genin. Hanami, limping in pain, was surrounded by the other kids shielding her.

"Do not worry Hanami," Burandon said, "we will succeed in getting you out of this place and to a place of healing."

"What he said," Ōkami replied. "Besides, your brother would be pissed off at all of us if we let anything else happen to you."

"Stay focused kids; we're heading down the tunnel!" Yamato said.

The group walked down the tunnel, the darkness lit by Burandon's miniature torch that he let Kakashi borrow. When they made it to the end of the tunnel, they prepared themselves for whatever might happen.

"Ōkami, Tsuki, tells us if you can see anyone up there," Kakashi ordered.

The twins nodded their heads and did as they were told. "BYAKUGAN!"

The twins scanned the ground above them and Tsuki was the one that spoke. "No Kakashi-sensei, there doesn't appear to be anyone standing over us."

"Fine, lets do this carefully then."

Kakashi carefully lifted the wood paneling up and set it aside, allowing the light from outside to shine down into the tunnel. Kakashi pulled himself up and looked around for any Anbu guards. There was some patrolling the outside of the house and he calculated that there was no chance there would be enough time to get all of the company out without them ultimately being seen. A distraction was going to be needed first.

"Okay, everyone wait here! And whatever you hear, don't panic!"

Kakashi quickly pulled himself up out of the tunnel and replaced the wooden panel on the entrance, then he leaped with his ninja speed to a nearby grass area far enough from the other location. He quickly set up a small paper bomb and leaped out of the bomb's blast radius and the enemy's line-of-sight.

With a minute the paper bomb went off and created a small explosion. The blast had its intended effect and all of the Anbu patrolling the house immediately went to go check out the source of the explosion. Kakashi took the distraction as an opportunity to return to the tunnel entrance and open it back up.

"Kakashi-sensei, what the hell was that!" Konohamaru asked.

"Paper bomb, for distraction. Now come on, we've got to move now!"

One-by-one, but with great sense of urgency, the company all got out of the tunnel without being seen by the Anbu. Hanami needed extra help get out do to the pain she was in. Kakashi sealed the entrance back up to avoid suspicion and they all got out of there as fast as possible with their chakra-enhanced speed.

"You know," Shikadai said, "you could have just used your Chidori to wipe out those guards or used some other amazing jutsu of yours Kakashi-sensei."

"Perhaps, yes…but there are alternatives to fighting. Now come on, we'll take you to where Lady Tsunade and Shizune are to get Hanami healed."

* * *

Sakura was hard at work in the dark, gloomy lab that once belonged to Orochimaru. She was performing experiments on the samples of the two serums she carried. She didn't know why Kabuto was so willing to let them use the lab, but she needed to find a solution to this problem, an antidote to each of these serums so they could be ready in case either of them got injected, like Hanami might have been.

Oh God, those Taka bastards injecting her daughter with this crap, the thought of it made her sick to her stomach! If any of them laid a finger on her little girl they'd regret it! And if she wasn't the one whose wrath they suffered, than it was going to be Naruto's, which was far worse!

In speaking of whom, her husband was sitting in the far corner of the room fuming in his own anger as he pondered everything that he now had on his plate. An evil revolutionary group had infiltrated his village right under his nose (hell, as far back as Kakashi-sensei's reign), have done the same thing to the other four great shinobi nations, he and his wife were set up as wanted criminals, their friends were out hunting for them, their daughter was missing, and his best friend, who may or may not be the mastermind of this whole conspiracy, was currently in possession of his son and using him to recover an ultimate weapon…Suffice to say, Naruto was _not_ in a good mood!

"Ah! This is a waste of time! We should be going to find Shinachiku!"

"Naruto," Sakura said, "we need to be patient. I'm scared too, but if we can find an antidote to this serum then it will be that much better for the both of us…And besides, aren't you the one who said that we'd be leading more trouble his way if we went to go find him?"

"That was before I knew _Taka_ was trying to take over the world!"

"Naruto, Sasuke's _not_ a part of this. I would have expected you of all people to have more faith in him than that!"

Naruto put his head in his hand and sighed aloud. "I know, I'm just—I feel so helpless, lost, confused. All these questions that need answering and no telling how many people we know are a part of Taka. For the first time in years I don't know what I should do or who I can trust."

Sakura left her work station and went over to her husband crouched down to take his bandaged hand in hers. "You can trust me."

That was actually enough to raise the blonde-haired man's spirits a little bit. "Thank you Sakura. I love you."

"I love you too." She gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"How romantic."

The couple turned to see the source of the voice, making Naruto scowl. "What do you want?"

"I just figured I'd check in," Kabuto said, "maybe offer some help if you needed it. I have to admit that it's nice to have some company for a change; it can get so lonely when you're in a place all by yourself…But you know all about being alone don't you Naruto?"

Naruto stood up, "Get out of here! We don't need your help!"

"Wait!" Sakura said putting a hand on her husband's chest to hold him back. "Actually, you're medical 'expertise' might be of help right now."

Naruto was stunned, "Sakura?!"

"Naruto, I've been at this for hours now and I'm barely making any progress. We're going to need all the help we can get." She turned to face Kabuto one more time. "But make no mistake; if you do anything to undermine us, or make any move against us, then we _will_ kill you, and you know full well that we can. Do I make myself clear?"

Kabuto merely smirked, "Completely. Now then, shall we get to work?"

* * *

After coming to an understanding, Shinachiku and Taka, the _original_ Taka, finished eating their breakfast, packed up their things, and stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean and the island where the ruins of the Uzushiogakure lay.

With merely a nod to one another, the group all leap off the high cliff and, focusing their chakra into the bottom of their feet, they landed on the surface of the water and ran across it towards the island. Sasuke led the way with Karin close behind him. Shinachiku and Sarada, since they were now going to be partners in the locating of the gem itself, ran side-by-side. Suigetsu and Jūgo were behind them, and Randamu was covering the rear.

Within minutes the group had made it to the shore of the island.

"This place feels…haunted," Shinachiku noted.

"I know," Karin agreed, "it's like the souls of all those that lived here still haunt this sight, unable to find rest. I know that's not really true, but all these ruined buildings and homes…it makes you feel uneasy."

"Aunt Karin, were you there when…?"

"No, I was born afterwards and grew up elsewhere along with the other few survivors of our clan. This place was destroyed in war while your grandmother was still just a girl."

"You mean when she moved to Konoha to become Kurama's jinchūriki?"

"Yes, it was either shortly before or shortly after that, I'm really not sure which."

"Hey you two," Sasuke called out, "let's stick to the plan."

With that, the group walked away from the shore and headed further inwards towards the center of the island. As they walked, Shinachiku found himself getting curious about the rest of Sasuke's teammates.

"Hey Suigetsu?"

"Yeah, what is it kid?" the purple-clad, shark-toothed swordsman asked rudely.

"I was just wondering why, after the war ended, you never tried going back to Kirigakure? As one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist, wouldn't the Mizukage be willing to invite you back into their ranks?"

"Well I'm not sure what Chōjūrō would have to say about that, I've only met him in passing during to war when he was still just a kid. But as for why I didn't go back…I don't know. Joining the Seven Swordsman was always mine and my brother's dream, but after he died I made it my goal to collect all seven of their swords to rebuild them from the ground up as their new leader. I guess I still want that…but for some reason when your bastard godfather asked me to come with him on his stupid redemption quest, I couldn't say no…Although I probably should have; at least that way I would have to deal with his wife's outbursts anymore—"

The so-called 'Second Coming of the Demon' was knocked on the head by Karin. "Hey watch it!"

Shinachiku turned to Jūgo next. "What about you Jūgo? Why are you here?"

"Well," the orange-haired man started, "when I was young I was prone to rage, in fact I even destroyed an entire village once because I lost control. I ran away into caves to seclude myself until I met my friend Kimimaro. When he died I didn't know what else I had. Years later Sasuke, the very person my friend died trying to recover for Orochimaru, tried to recruit me to track down Itachi and I refused. But there was something about Sasuke's killer intent that frightened me, so I ended up joining Hebi as he called it then."

"So why are you here now?" the boy asked again.

"Because I've grown loyal to Sasuke. He reminds me of Kimimaro, and he is able to help me stay balanced and maintain control of myself. But kid, I need you to promise me something."

"What's that?"

"Don't make me angry…You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Shinachiku was suddenly feeling creeped out, "Um…okay, sure."

"Hey kid," Randamu interrupted, "you wanna hear _my_ story too?"

"Not really, no."

"Whatever, I didn't feel like telling it anyway."

The group made it to a cliff overlooking the sea. There was a tall statue of what seemed to be a woman from the Uzumaki clan with long flowing hair and her hands clasped together over her heart.

"Okay," Sasuke began, "according to my sources, this statue is some sort of beacon that will reveal the location of the Chakra Gem to someone with Uzumaki blood inside them."

"How?" Shinachiku asked.

"Do you see that hole cut into the base of the statue?" The Uchiha pointed to said whole, large enough to fit a person's hand through. "A person need only put their hand in there in order to offer up a sampling of blood to prove their ancestry."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute!" the boy panicked. "What's going to happen to my hand when I put it in there?! Is it going to get chopped off of something?!"

"No," Karin answered, "it's just going to prick your finger and take a drop or two of blood."

The boy looked back at the statue in worry. "I don't know Aunt Karin; what if you're sources are wrong? What if something really bad happens?"

"Fine," Sasuke said in irritation. "Sarada put your hand in the hole please."

"Hai." The girl walked over to the statue and was about to put her hand inside, when she felt a hand grasp her arm.

"Wait!" Shinachiku had stopped her and his voice called everybody's attention. "I'll do it!"

The boy stuck his hand in the whole, biting his lip for whatever pain he was about to feel…

…He felt a quick prick of his index finger just like Karin said.

"Ow!" The boy quickly yanked his hand out of the whole and put his finger in his mouth to seal up the wound. He turned to Sasuke, "So what now?"

"Just wait."

Within seconds, the statue stated to glow with a faint red light. The statue's arms moved away from its heart and stretched outwards toward the company. As its hands move they revealed that they had been covering some sort of crystal from which the red light came from.

The group were entranced by what they were seeing, especially the boy. They all watched as the red light shined out from the crystal and over the landscape of the island.

"Now this light will point us to where the Chakra Gem is buried," Sasuke explained.

The light moved across the island, passing over ruined buildings and homes, rivers and woodlands, until finally…the light passed over the water and stopped right in the middle of the ocean.

The entire company all had the same simultaneous reaction: **"D'OH!"**

* * *

Kabuto and Sakura were still hard at work on trying to find an antidote, when they all suddenly heard what sounded like a frog croaking.

"What the heck?" Sakura asked.

"It sounds like the Toad Sage is receiving a visit from one of his friends," Kabuto remarked.

"Don't look at me, I didn't summon any toads today," Naruto replied.

The croaking got louder as a small, red toad came hopping down the stairs until it landed right at Naruto's feet. The toad must have been moving for a while because it looked very out of breath.

"Yo! Are you Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Umm…yes."

The toad pointed it's 'hand' over to the pink-haired woman, "And is that your wife?"

"Yes…" Sakura confirmed in confusion.

"Oh thank God! I've searching all day for you two. I had to hop here all the way from the edge of the Fire County overlooking the sea!"

"Well…it's nice to meet you, I guess," Naruto replied, still confused. "But why were you looking for me and Sakura?"

The toad cleared its throat, "I was summoned by your son."

Both parents instantly bolted to attention. "You saw Shinachiku?!"

"Yep. He was at the cliff overlooking the eastern sea last night."

Sakura, who had moved next to her husband, turned to him. "Then he must be at the island where your mother's village was already."

"Yeah, well…" the toad interrupted uncomfortably, "…the kid summoned me to deliver a message, but before he told me anything I had to let him know that both of you were on the run."

Naruto and Sakura couldn't help the frowns that appeared on their faces.

"Did-Did he say anything?" Sakura asked in worry.

"He seemed pretty upset, and he was really worried about his sister."

Sakura covered her mouth with her hand as tears started falling. Naruto hung his head.

"What was my son's message?" Naruto asked.

"Well, he summoned me for that reason, but before he could tell me anything, Sasuke Uchiha showed up and the boy accused him of being in on everything. The one-armed jerk then promised he'd give the kid answers before he knocked him out cold. He then told me to come find you to let you know that he has your son and he's safe, but that you two need to have a talk."

Naruto clenched both of his fists is rage. "That's alright; I have some things I need to speak to him about anyway."

"We _both_ do!" Sakura said in anger. "Where is he?"

"Not sure, but I have to assume he's in the same place I last saw him. If not then he may have gone to the island you were talking about."

"Okay, fine." Naruto declared. "Sakura, you stay here and finish the antidotes with Kabuto, I'll go track down Sasuke and Shinachiku."

"Not a chance!" Sakura defied, "You're my husband and Shina's _my_ son too. I'm sticking with you!"

"But Sakura, what about…?"

"Oh don't worry about it. I can keep working on this for you two. I don't mind really; gives me something to do."

They both turned to Kabuto, who didn't seem to be in any low spirits about this new situation, nor could Naruto pick up any deceptive thoughts from him.

The former Seventh Hokage walked up to the Snake Sannin's former apprentice and merely nodded and said, "Thank you."

"Your welcome…So, don't you have a son to go find?"

"Oh, right! Come on Sakura, let's go!"

"Hai!" his wife agreed.

"I guess I'll lead you two to their location then," the toad offered.

"Thanks," Naruto said, "but you've been moving for a long time already and are clearly out of breath. We can find our way there ourselves. Thank you for all your help."

"Your welcome…it's been an honor to serve you and your son sir. I hope you can kick that Uchiha bastard's ass!" With that, the toad dispelled itself and the two lovers were running hastily back up the stairs to exit the compound, all the while Kabuto got back to work on the antidotes to the mysterious serums…

They finally made it outside and were just about to start running east towards the sea…when all of a sudden a kunai was thrown at Naruto's feet.

The kunai was not meant to do any damage to the blonde but rather to get his attention, which it succeeded in as both he and Sakura looked up into the woods before them.

In the tree tops was a squad of ten elite Jōnin: Sai, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka and his nin-dog Akamaru, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee, Tenten, and their assigned leader, Captain Odaku.

"Lord Seventh Hokage," the rugged faced Anbu leader said, "By the power vested in both me and my team by Councilman Uragi of the Hidden Leaf Village, you and your wife are under arrest."

* * *

There you have it! A lot of the lingering moments of tension are alleviated from last time, and yet the plot still thickens!

There were a fair share of references this time, as usual, and with Randamu back we can probably expect more in the future!

In speaking of Randamu, the line he says at the beginning about the tension in the room while he's snacking on popcorn was inspired by a scene from one of my favorite movies "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," where Augustus Gloop gets himself stuck in a pipe and Wonka is seen snacking on some candy as he says the same line, "This suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."

While we're still on the subject of Randamu, the gag about Suigetsu insisting that Shinachiku didn't want to know where they found Randamu was directly lifted from the Disney movie "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." There is a scene where the group is talking about each other's pasts and Milo asks what the Mole's story is, to which Dr. Sweet quickly gives Milo the very same warning.

Oh, one more thing, Randamu's breaking the fourth wall to warn us that things might get more confusing from here onward was inspired by the "Futurama" special "Bender's Big Score." (for the record, easily the best of the four, at least in my opinion). Bender traveled back in time to New Year's Eve 1999 and finds the frozen Fry that will wake up in the future, remembering that the Fry he is looking for is the one that comes back _from_ the future! This prompts Bender to comment on how confusing the plot of the episode already is and break to Fourth Wall to warn the audience of what's to come!

The line that Kakashi says to Shikadai about how "There are alternatives to fighting" was a reference to "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope," when the Millennium Falcon is caught in the Death Star's tractor beam and Obi-Wan Kenobi gives the exact same advice to Han Solo. I have to say that I seriously cannot believe that it took me THIS LONG to find a place to throw in a Star Wars reference! As probably my favorite movie series of all time, you'd think I would have done it sooner, but I guess until now I could never come up with anything that fit right.

Jūgo's warning to Shinachiku, "Don't make me angry...You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." was an obvious homage to the classic "The Incredible Hulk" TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. As I was going over Jūgo's motivation, a character I am admittedly not as familiar with as others, I realized that this would be a PERFECT reference for him to make.

The scene of the statue casting a light to show the way to the Chakra Gem, only for it to point them out to sea, was directly lifted from a similar scene in a classic episode of "The Simpsons" called "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish.'" In that episode, Grandpa Simpson and Bart go on a treasure hunt in competition with Mr. Burns and the location of the treasure is revealed in a similar way, right down to the two of them shouting "D'oh!" when the searchlight within the tombstone points them towards the water.

But on the subject of that, I have two issues now that I would like to ask your guy's help with. First of all, this being in the Land of Whirlpools (or Land of Eddies depending on your translation), I liked the idea of the Chakra Gem being sealed away somewhere underwater. The only problem is that I cannot recall many times, or any really, during the series where shinobi needed to do any underwater exploration. I'm just not sure whether or not the characters in the Naruto universe have invented deep sea SCUBA gear to breath underwater. But frankly, the level of technological advancement in this universe has always been confusing to me. If anyone has ideas of how I can approach this, I'd appreciate it.

Second, I am trying to come up with some new techniques for the kids. For example, Skikadai is the son of Shikamaru and Temari, a shadow user and a wind mistress. How do you combine those two ideas together? Or Inojin, whose father is Sai, who can bring artist's drawings to life, and his mother is Ino, who can affect people's minds. How do those two things go together? If any of my readers have combination attack ideas you'd like to offer, I'd happily consider them and give you credit in the forthcoming chapters.

Well, until next time, see ya!


	16. Chapter 16--Partners

Hi there folks! thesaiyanjedi is back again for the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I'm really sorry to keep you guys waiting so long. Work's starting to pick up again, but don't worry, here's the latest chapter right here.

As of this writing, this story has amassed 85 reviews, 69 favorites, and 73 follows. As a new fanfiction writer, I am really grateful for that. You guys are the best!

I also want to say thank you for all of the feedback from last chapter, and from all of the chapters for that matter. Some of you called me out on my implying that Kakashi still had his Sharingan after the war. Personally, I'm still not sure about that, but I decided to remove that reference anyway since you guys probably remember it better than I do.

Also, last time I asked for advice about how I can give Shinachiku and Sarada a source of air when they go underwater, and I got a lot of great options, but I decided to go with SilentRaider52's suggestion, which I will elaborate on more when we get to the end.

Okay, I've kept you guys waiting long enough. Lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 16: Partners**

"Get out of our way Odaku," the former Hokage demanded, "we don't have time for this!"

"You're in no position to be giving me orders anymore Uzumaki," Odaku retorted. "We are under orders from Councilman Uragi to bring both of you in and we are not leaving here without you."

Something clicked in Naruto's mind, 'Uragi…? That son of a bitch! He's TAKA!'

"Tell you what captain," Naruto said, "you can go back to the village and deliver a message for us. Tell that scumbag that if he wants to do us in, he can come here and do his own dirty work!"

"Watch your mouth traitor! You've no right to speak of the Interim Hokage that way!"

Naruto merely smirked, "Wrong Odaku, the only traitor I see here is you."

Odaku showed no emotion on his face, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, sure you don't. But it doesn't matter now anyway. Right now Sakura and I have to go find our son before we have an even bigger problem on our hands."

Naruto and Sakura were about to take off east towards the ocean without another word, when they suddenly felt some sort of force holding them in place. Looking at their feet they saw a shadow cast on the ground and extending from their feet all the way up into the trees. Neither of them needed to guess where the shadow was coming from.

"What are you doing Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"Guys, please don't make this harder on yourselves," Shikamaru advised. "Just tell us what is going on and we'll see if we can—"

"This isn't a negotiation Nara!" Odaku shouted. "Our orders are to bring the traitors back dead or alive. They can explain themselves when they're on trial…if there even is a trial."

The rest of the retrieval party looked to each other in silent conversation, debating internally about what their next, best course of action ought to be.

"Captain," Sai interrupted, "would it not be more prudent to interrogate the prisoners while we are here? We already have them captured in a Shadow Possession Jutsu after all."

"Negative Captain Sai, as I've already said, our orders are to locate and capture, no questions asked."

"But Captain—" Hinata tried interjecting.

"No…questions…asked!"

The icy cold glare the Anbu captain gave the Hyūga heiress actually made her feel uneasy, thereby making her husband quite angry.

"Hey, don't you talk to my wife like that!" Kiba shouted.

"Watch it Inuzuka! Or do you and your mutt both want to be stayed and neutered right now!"

Kiba growled in defiance, as did Akamaru, but neither did anything further beyond that.

"You guys, _please_!" Sakura pleaded. "Our son is out there right now and Naruto and I are afraid he may be in terrible danger! We _have_ to find him!"

Odaku raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? Then why aren't you heading his way right now instead of us finding you in the middle of the Hidden Sound Village, exiting one of Orochimaru's secret laboratories? Not exactly a place an innocent former kage would take refuge."

Sakura sighed, "Well…that's a little harder to explain."

"I think we've heard enough of this," Odaku dismissed. "Yamanaka, paralyze their minds so we can take them back now!"

Ino got into the recognizable hand sign of her clan…but that was all she was doing. After stealing a quick nod to her husband, she got into the pose for her clan's Mind Destruction Jutsu, but in truth she was actually projecting her consciousness outwards to read her friend's minds.

The scattered images that Ino saw left her stunned and confused: the assassin who attacked them at their wedding, when she saw that assassin die before her, Naruto and Sakura's son going off on his mission with Sasuke, Odaku himself presenting a mysterious scroll to Naruto, Sakura pumping a clear blue fluid out of a heart attack victim's blood, Naruto's own ninja attacking him, Sakura's own hospital staff attacking her, their daughter missing, themselves on the run, meeting with Kabuto in this place.

So many images, so many questions that needed answering, but there was a word that kept popping up over and over again in both of their minds, one that, with Naruto and Sakura saying Shinachiku was in danger, gave the platinum blonde kunoichi a sense of dread: _Taka_.

Using her clan's jutsu, Ino projected her thoughts into the minds of all of her comrades, minus her captain. _"Guys!"_ Ino shouted physically, _"We have to help Sakura and Naruto get out of here! They need to find Shinachiku! NOW!"_

There wasn't much argument going on in the heads of the nine Jōnin. They all came here to get answers and to help their friends, and if they had to betray their superiors to do it than so be it! As soon as Ino transferred the images she saw into everyone else's minds, they all knew that quick action was needed.

"_Okay"_ Shikamaru said to the others telepathically thanks to Ino's jutsu, _"here's the plan…"_

"Yamanaka!" Odaku shouted, "What are you waiting for?"

"Gomen Captain!" Ino said. "I'll do it now…MIND DESTRUCTION JUTSU!"

Ino made the hand signs and said the words…but neither Naruto nor Sakura were a comatose vegetable lying on the forest floor.

"What…?" Odaku asked in confusion. He then felt a sting on the back of his neck. "Ow!"

He slapped the back of his neck and found that a bug had stunned him. "What the hell?!"

"A special kind of insect," Shino clarified to get the Anbu's attention. "Its bite leaves a sense of disorientation and weakness that takes hold in a fairly quick and debilitating manner."

"Traitor!" Odaku yelled, his head already feeling dizzy. "You dare defy your village to aid these traitors?! You…You think that some bug bite would be enough to stop **me?!**"

As he said this, the groggy Anbu captain was charging up his chakra into his hand as electricity charged into it, creating a mini storm of electricity around his arm.

"No, I don't," Shino answered, "That's why I'm getting some help from a friend."

The Anbu, struggling to stay focused, readied a deadly chakra technique that he had learned from the former Sixth Hokage himself. "LIGHTNING STYLE: LIGHTNING CUT-AAAAGGGHHHHH!"

His attack was ready, but Odaku never got the opportunity to use it as he felt a precise-but-deadly blow to the back, followed by several more in rapid succession. The speed of these blows was almost a blur and they were all aimed specifically at the nodes in his body's chakra pathway system. Odaku knew that there was only one person on his team that could be doing this, and yet the affects of the insect's poison sting was making it too hard for him to counter attack as his Lightning Cutter jutsu was already dissipating.

"GENTLE FIST STYLE: EIGHT TRIGRAMS SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!"

Hinata kept going until all 64 blows were made to her captain's chakra system. By the time she was done, the blocked pathways mixed with the insect's poison left the Jōnin-level shinobi unable to stand.

"You…Lady Hyūga…you…traitorous…bitch…" Odaku cursed as he was passing out.

But he didn't get to fall asleep on his own as he received a massive blow right to the neck that could knock anyone out light a light…followed by one last punch to the face.

Hinata scowled in anger, "I have a first name asshole, all of us do, and mine is _Hinata_."

Naruto and Sakura could only stare at what they have just seen in confusion and disbelief, especially Naruto. 'You know what,' Naruto thought to himself with an exaggerated expression on his face as he cupped the cheek she had slapped decades before, 'I'd almost forgotten how scary Hinata can be when she gets angry.'

Hinata turned to the two 'fugitives' at standing at on the forest floor below and quickly leapt down to them. She didn't hesitate to envelop Naruto in a bone-crushing hug.

"Naruto…I'm so glad you're safe."

"I-I'm okay Hinata, really." The blonde awkwardly wrapped his arms around the lavender-haired Hyūga princess, but he couldn't resist stealing a glance at his wife just to make sure she wouldn't overact.

Hinata seemed to catch on to this and broke off the hug in a panic. "Oh God! Sakura…I uh…I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

"It's okay Hinata, I understand." Sakura could hold back a light chuckle as she said that.

The rest of their friend's jumped down from the treetops to greet them. Kiba walked up to his wife and shared an understanding glance with Naruto.

"Kiba," Hinata said, "I'm really sorry you had to see that. I swear I wasn't—"

"Hey, it's alright! I understand, I'm happy he's safe too! Now come here."

The canine-shinobi slammed his lips onto Hinata's, who soon wrapped her arms around the feral ninja and she embraced the kiss.

"Get a room you two," Shino told them in a very uncharacteristic moment of humor. It was enough to force the married couple to break apart and blush in embarrassment.

"Naruto! Sakura! Thank goodness we have found you safe and sound!" Lee proclaimed in his usual overly-energetic tone.

"Yeah, we all worried about you two," Tenten concurred with her husband.

"Its great to see all you guys." Naruto said.

Ino quickly ran over to her best friend and both women shared a loving hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay Forehead," Ino said on the verge of tears.

"I'm fine, thanks Pig," Sakura said with total politeness.

"Indeed, it is most fortunate that the circumstances of this reunion were not more costly," Sai interjected.

"Shorter sentences next time Sai, jeez!" Naruto mocked, "But thanks a lot." The two former teammates smiled and shook hands.

It was at this point however that Shikamaru had to interject. "Hey, this is all well and good and all, but technically speaking you two are still wanted criminals from Konoha and we all committed an act of treason to help you. Now Odaku's likely not going to wake up for a while, so maybe now's they time for you both to tell us what the hell is going on!"

"I wish we could Shikamaru," Sakura answered, "but right now Naruto and I need to go find Shinachiku. His life could be at risk."

"Listen guys," Naruto spoke to all of his friends at once, "I'm not sure what you've all been told about me and Sakura, but I give all of you my word that it isn't true."

"We know." Chōji said.

"You—You do?"

"Yeah," Shino concurred. "What we _don't_ know is what's really going on, or what those images Ino projected into our brain's mean."

"Images?" Sakura asked confused.

"Yeah, I used my clan's techniques to tap into your memories and project them among the nine of us."

"You mean like how you helped us all to share what Naruto was feeling during the war?"

"Yep."

Naruto thought about it; he needed to go find his son, but he didn't just want to abandon his friends and leave them with no information. Besides, if Taka was as deeply entrenched in the village as Kabuto said, then he was going to need as many friends as he could get.

"Okay, tell you what, how about me and Sakura tell you what you want to know and then you can come with us to help us find our son?"

"Why do you think you'll need all of us just for that?" Shikamaru asked.

"Because Sakura and I have found something out and I need people at my side I know I can trust."

* * *

Shinachiku, Sarada, and the rest of Taka, the original Taka, were staring out towards the sea as the light of the statue pointed them to the ocean depths where the Chakra Stone supposedly lay.

"What now?" Shinachiku asked.

Sasuke wasn't fazed, "You and Sarada swim down there and get the gem, what else?"

"But honey," Karin interjected, "what are they going to do for air?"

"Yeah, and that water is probably really cold," Jūgo added.

"Maybe you should just let me take care of this," Suigetsu suggested. "After all, water is my element."

Sasuke's tone did not change, "You don't have the bloodline needed to break the seal guarding the gem; _they_ do."

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Sarada asked.

Sasuke pulled out a small scroll. "RELEASE!" The scroll opened and out popped two small devices that looked like they could be held inside a person's mouth. "I was curious about whether the Uzumaki clan might have done something like this, so I packed these just in case."

Each of the kids took one of the devices as Shinachiku asked, "What are they?"

"Miniaturized rebreathers," Sasuke explained. "Hold them in your mouth and they can provide you with an oxygen source for a limited amount of time. But don't waste any time; if you can't find the treasure before your oxygen runs out, both of you come back to the surface immediately."

"Got it dad!" Sarada said.

"Yes sir, Uncle Sasuke!" Shinachiku said.

"You kids please be careful," Karin told them worriedly. "There's no telling what you might find down there. And Sarada, remember your Fire Style techniques to help keep yourself warm."

"I will mom."

"Hey, what about me Aunt Karin?" Shinachiku asked. "I don't know the Uchiha clan's Fire Style techniques."

Karin's eyes widened slightly, "Oh…yeah…Sarada, please do what you can for Shinachiku in case he gets cold."

"Well…" Sarada thought aloud while blushing, "I…guess I could try warming him with my body heat."

The raven-haired girl spoke so quietly that the blonde-haired boy couldn't hear her. "Did you say something Sarada?"

"N-Nothing!" It took every once of control the girl had to keep from blushing as red as a tomato, especially after noticing the sly, knowing smirk her own mother was giving her.

"Hey, if we're gonna do this then these kids should probably get down there quick," Suigetsu advised. "The water's gonna be that much colder if they wait until nightfall."

"Agreed," Sasuke said. He then turned to the two children. "I know I'm not the easiest person to work with, and I know I don't show my gratitude very easily, but I am really proud of you kids for doing this."

Sasuke turned to his best friend's son, his godson, and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry I haven't been more open with you about this mission Shinachiku, but thank you for trusting me now."

"Thank you Uncle Sasuke…And I'm sorry for getting angry with you…I should have trusted you."

"Haven't you been listening to what I've said? _I'm_ the one who was in the wrong here. You followed your instincts and remained defensive, like any smart shinobi should. You're going to make a great ninja some day kid."

"Just like my dad?"

Sasuke actually smiled as he ruffled the boy's golden hair, "Yeah…just like the dobe."

Sasuke moved over to Sarada, his only daughter, his only child, his pride and joy. "Sarada…I don't pretend to be the world's greatest father. I've taken you and your mother on so many of my redemption missions that you've hardly had time to enjoy your youth and be with your friends, and for that I am sorry."

"Dad—"

"I know you've always had a bond with your godfather and godmother, and I understand that. Naruto's shown you nothing but compassion and affection whenever he's seen you while I can be so cold."

"Dad—"

"And I know I'm a horrible parent for sending my own daughter down into the dark, cold ocean depths just to find an all-powerful artifact that could endanger the whole world."

"DAD!"

Sasuke stopped as his daughter yelled at him.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. You and mom taught me well. And you're right, I do love Uncle Naruto…but you're my father, and I love you too."

Something came over Sasuke and he actually embraced his daughter in a hug. Shinachiku and Karin smiled at the scene, while Suigetsu and Jūgo looked on surprised. Randamu on the other hand had to ruin the scene with his usual sense of humor.

"Aw, it's a Kodak moment."

Sasuke pulled away in embarrassment as he reassumed his usual stoic demeanor.

"Well then, I guess it's time." But the Uchiha stopped himself as he looked over the cliff of the mountain to the ocean. He sighed, "In truth kids, I do not know what you'll find down there, good or bad. You don't have to go if you don't want to. There's no shame in turning back."

"Uncle Sasuke, please!" Shinachiku interrupted. "I promised I would do this, so I at least have to try."

Sasuke put on another of his usual smirks, "You've got your father's courage all right kid." The boy smiled big and wide.

"Be careful kids, you never know what you might find out at sea," Randamu interrupted. "I remember one time, when I was a younger man, I was under siege by a band of bloodthirsty pirates all seeking some treasure. My only backup was another crew of pirates that came our way. They were sailing on a ship that looked like it had a sun symbol on it's bow, and it's jolly roger was a skull and crossbones with a straw hat on it. Their captain was a boy with a loud mouth that could stretch his body like rubber—"

"ENOUGH RANDAMU!" Karin shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you that nobody believes your ridiculous story about 'Straw Hat Pirates'? Seriously, a crew made up of a rubber man for a captain, a guy that fights with three-swords for a first mate, two _stupidly_, _impossibly_ well-endowed women for a navigator and archaeologist, a sniper with a Pinocchio nose, a womanizing cook, a doctor that's a talking reindeer, a cyborg shipwright, and a perverted living skeleton that's also a musician! What kind of idiots do you take us for?!"

"…It could happen," Randamu said defeated.

Sasuke sighed in irritation as he turned back to the kids. "Okay then, good luck to both of you."

"HAI!" Both Genin shouted.

With that, both children ran away from the rest of the group back to shore. Once they finally made it to the beach, they each channeled chakra into their feet so they could run on the surface of the water. They kept running until they each got to the spot where the statue's light pointed them to. The kids shared a look at each other.

"You ready for this?" Shinachiku asked.

"Yeah. You?" Sarada asked.

"Yeah, let's do this!"

Both of them put their rebreathers in their mouths and gave each other one last nod. Then, in unison, they each stopped the chakra flow going through their feet and plummeted into the water.

From the island, the adults all watched as the kids went below the surface to find their prize. None of them were sure what to say, until guess who finally broke the ice?

"Well, I guess we can't _sea_ them anymore." Randamu commented.

Sasuke scowled, "No, we can't."

"Don't start crying Karin, or else you may get _water_logged."

A vein appeared on Karin's forehead, "I won't, thanks."

Randamu then started again, "It's a pity we didn't get to _wave_ them goodbye."

"Oh God!" Suigetsu moaned.

"Hey Jūgo," the masked loudmouth continued, "You ever head the story about the evil tuna?" The burliest member of Taka shook his head in annoyance. "Well, let's just say…he was rotten to the _albacore_!"

Sasuke quickly put his sword to Randamu's throat, "Will you please, for God's sake, shut the hell up?!"

"Umm…you remember that my head can be reattached, so what are you…?"

"Let's just say that you make one more joke I'll cut off the one body part that may _not_ grow back."

Randamu needed no further encouragement and he crossed his legs in fear. "Shutting up now."

* * *

Tsunade was in a safe house, away from her usual residence, in a safe place where neither Uragi or his Anbu Black Ops could find her. Shizune was with her, having come to her and several of her friends with what she had overheard inside Uragi's office.

She was worried about Hanami Uzumaki, Naruto and Sakura's daughter. Naruto was the closest thing Tsunade would ever have to a son, and Sakura was the greatest pupil she ever trained…no offense to Shizune. She had hoped for years that the two of them would wake up and realize their love for each other, and she could not have been prouder when it finally happened. Not only was she one of the guests at their wedding, but she personally delivered both of their children. Suffice to say, she was pretty close to the Uzumaki kids and was **NOT** pleased to learn that someone had taken young Hanami.

The Fifth Hokage was broken out of her thoughts when she heard a knock at the door. She signaled Shizune to go deal with it.

Shizune went over to the door and spoke through it, "Password?"

A voice on the other side answered, "Jiraiya."

Shizune opened the door and was greeted with her friends…and several surprise guests.

"Kakashi, what are these kids doing here?"

The silver-haired former kage answered, "We found them inside the secret panic room beneath Naruto and Sakura's house. It looks like they all had the same idea as we did because look who they found."

Kakashi stepped aside to reveal Hanami, who was still being carried by Yamato and Konohamaru, with help from some of the kids. Shizune was horrified at the sight of the girl's condition.

"Oh my God!" Shizune quickly went to Hanami and started examining her injuries. "Lady Tsunade! Come quick!"

The old medical ninja went over to the group and had the same look of horror at the poor girl's state. "Oh God! Lay her down!"

They did as they were told and helped the pink-haired girl lay down on the floor, Tsunade rolled up her sleeves and her hands started glowing with green chakra. She proceeded to start healing her former student's only daughter.

"What happened?" Tsunade demanded of everyone.

Yamato answered for everyone, "She says she got attacked by a pair of Anbu the day her parents fled the village. She was able to use the last of her chakra to trick them into taking a shadow clone as their prisoner in her place, but not before they gave her a savage beating first."

"What do you mean the _last_ of her chakra?"

"According to the kids," Konohamaru said, "one of the Anbu restrained her as her class was being escorted to a safe zone and they injected some mysterious red drug into her bloodstream."

Both Tsunade and Shizune reacted in terror, "WHAT?!"

"Yeah," Tsuki said, "Whatever it was it totally blocked off her chakra pathway system. Creating that clone they took with them took the last bit of chakra she had before she lost it all completely."

Tsunade turned to the girl she was healing, "Hanami…why? Why didn't you come and find me? Or Shizune? We could have helped you."

Hanami struggled to explain, "Th-Those bad men that attacked me…they were my daddy's ninjas. If...If I couldn't trust them—"

"Then you didn't know who you could trust," Shizune finished for her.

"So you ran to the panic room beneath your house and waited there ever since," Tsunade said in understanding.

Hanami was on the verge of tears, "I'm sorry…I got scared."

"Shhh! That doesn't matter now!" Tsunade exclaimed. "What matters is that you're here now and that you get healed."

As the Sannin continued healing her patient, she looked up to face the children that helped find her. "You kids did a great thing by finding her. If she had waited in that room for any longer she could have died from her injuries. But what were all of you doing down there in the first place?"

"We all felt that there was something amiss ever since Lord Hokage and his wife fled the village as criminals," Shikadai explained. "Not to mention that it all happened so soon after Shinachiku left on his mission with Sarada's dad. With our parents all outside the village looking for them, we decided that if there was some conspiracy going on we'd need to look into it ourselves."

"That was a very foolish thing for you kids to do!" Tsunade yelled. "You could have gotten yourselves killed and then no one, not even your parents, would have known about it!"

"We're sorry Fifth Hokage," Tsuki said. "We were only doing what we thought was right, especially after we realized that we hadn't seen Hanami since that day."

"Lady Tsunade, if I may?" Kakashi interjected. "These kids _did_ show an impressive level of proactive planning and decision making for their age and experience. If not for their investigation, Hanami's location may have never been found and the girl might have been lost."

"Be that as it may Kakashi," the buxom blonde Sannin retorted, "they were still getting in far over their heads, and if it wasn't for you, Yamato and Konohamaru coincidentally following up a similar lead, I doubt that these kids would have gotten out of that panic room alive!"

She turned to face the seven children before her with authoritative sternness, but still with a clear hint of appreciation and pity in her eyes. "I'm sorry kids, but I'm going to have to report your activities to your parents and guardians."

"WHAT?!" Ōkami shouted.

"Uh-oh!" Chōchō yelped.

"Oh no!" Tsuki panicked.

"Well, this is unfortunate," Inojin noted.

"Indeed, we are in a most precarious situation despite our heroic deed," Burandon commented.

Bagu merely glanced over at the green-clad Genin, "What he said."

Shikadai did not say anything aloud, but internally he was panicking 'Oh crap! My mom's going to _kill_ me when she finds out about this! This is such a drag!'

"Yes," Tsunade said, "and let me tell you kids that many of your parents may be away from home, but they'll be back soon enough and after what you all have done they are in for the shock of their lives…"

* * *

The nine shinobi just received the shock of their lives. Naruto and Sakura had just told them the terrible truth that Taka had infiltrated not only Konoha but the other Five Great Shinobi Villages as well. _TAKA!_ Sasuke's old team was back and up to something even worse than ever before…And if Sasuke really was involved, than he was likely using Naruto and Sakura's own son as a means to an end.

"Goddamn it! I _knew_ that Uchiha bastard was hiding something!" Shikamaru cursed. "I warned you that this whole mission was a hoax Naruto! Why didn't you use your common sense instead of playing right into his hand?!"

"Shikamaru," Hinata started, "Naruto only did what he believed was right. Sasuke is his best friend, there's no way he could have known—"

"Don't go making excuses for him Hinata! He chose to trust a traitor and a deserter and now we all are paying the price for it!"

"Don't you snap at my wife like that, you lazy bastard!" Kiba growled.

"To be perfectly fair," Shino interjected, "this Taka infiltration, if it is indeed real, dates back well before Naruto's reign as Hokage ever started. This conspiracy slipped beneath all of our notice, yours included Shikamaru. We cannot blame Naruto for everything here."

Shikamaru looked at the Aburame and groaned, "Man, being wrong about things is such a drag." He turned to his old friend, "I'm sorry Naruto, but—"

"It's okay Shika," Naruto assured him, "it's in the past. Right now we need to figure out what to do about Taka, and the first thing me and Sakura agreed to do is to go to the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village and catch up with our son."

"And Sasuke." Sai clearly meant that as a statement, not a question.

"Yes…" Naruto said almost lost.

"Do not worry Naruto," Lee shouted in his usual overly energetic demeanor. "We have yours and Sakura's back and will fight this Taka conspiracy together!" He ended his proclamation with his signature nice guy pose, complete with thumbs up.

Tenten smiled at her husband's goofy antics, but was fully on board with him for his determination. "Yeah, we're all in this together now."

Ino suddenly got a somewhat uncharacteristic sense of determination. "I'm not going to let my best friend face this all on her own, or let her son get hurt, Sasuke or not!"

"Ino…" Sakura felt touched by her best friend's loyalty to her.

"And I cannot abandon my wife or the first two people I ever came to consider friends," Sai smiled. "I will join your mission too."

"Yeah, count me in!" Chōji declared.

"Me too!" Kiba declared, while Akamaru barked enthusiastically.

"I would follow you anywhere Naruto," Hinata said, "I'll be more than happy help you find Shinachiku."

"I guess I'm coming too," Shino shrugged.

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, than he moaned, "Oh what the hell, I'm in too."

Naruto almost had tears in his eyes as all of his friends swore their allegiance to him. He knew for certain that, even if it turned out everyone else in the village was plotting against him, at least the friends standing before him now were going to be there at his side through thick and thin.

When Naruto was growing up, he was hated by everyone. He was desperate for friends and had spent years building bonds with all of them. And now look where he was. He was so lucky to have earned friends like them.

"Thank you guys. You don't know how much this means to me."

Sakura, for no other reason than to show how much she loved him and that she would always be there for him, grabbed Naruto's head and turned it to face her, then gave him a soft kiss on the lips. "You'll always have me too sweetie."

"One question though," Shikamaru interrupted. "You said that _Kabuto_ had agreed to work on an antidote to these two serums you told us about. Why are you two willing to trust _him_ with this, of all people?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, we don't," Sakura answered. "If I had it my way I'd be developing the antidote myself, but Naruto and I both agreed the finding Shinachiku is more important right now."

"Besides, he didn't have to tell us anything about Taka, but he did," Naruto said. "I don't know why, but that means something."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes in skepticism, but didn't press the issue. "So, I guess we're going to teleport there with your Flying Thunder God Technique?"

"I wish we could," said Naruto. "But I've never been to the Land of Whirlpools so I don't have any markers set up there. So we're going to have to go on foot."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Kiba asked. "Lets get moving."

Naruto got a determined look on his face, resembling the determined leader they all knew. "Right, let's go…all of us!"

No more words needed to be said. The eleven shinobi took off towards the east, the Leaf's Orange Hokage in the lead, like old times.

'Just hang in their son,' Naruto thought, 'your parents are on their way. Just stay out of hot water until we get there.'

* * *

'God this water is cold!' Shinachiku thought.

He and Sarada were underwater, swimming around looking for…something. They both knew that they were in the spot where the Chakra Gem was buried, but they only realized after they dived down there that they weren't even aware of what they were looking for. Was the gem resting on the ocean floor? Was it locked inside some treasure chest? Was it something else entirely? The darkness level down there didn't make things any easier.

They kept swimming, down and down, remaining vigilant and looking for anything.

Eventually, Sarada noticed a strange shape down below. She tugged on Shinachiku's sleeve and pointing him towards it. It looked like…No, no it couldn't be…could it?

It looked like a cave. An underwater cave. What were the odds?

As soon as the kids saw it, they quickly started swimming towards the cave. They swam into the cave and found themselves swimming down a dark tunnel. Forward they went until they finally reached the end of the tunnel. There was an opening above their heads so they could pop up and get a fresh breath.

After surfacing, they found that they were in an open cave, darkly lit, with a big open area that allowed for a pocket of air. There was a rocky walkway that led further into the interior of this place; no doubt that this might be the place where the gem was hidden.

The kids nodded and took out their rebreathers. They got out of the water and Sarada quickly use her Fireball Jutsu to create a small fire for her and Shinachiku to warn up by. Shinachiku had read somewhere to rub his chest, and his arms and legs would warm up from there.

During this, Sarada tried to sit closer to Shinachiku, so close that their skin touched. Both of them noticed the skin contact and found themselves staring into each other's eyes…

Then they pulled back out of embarrassment, but both of them still blushing.

"Sorry," Sarada said as she dried all the water off of her glasses.

"It's okay," Shinachiku replied. "So…um…you ready to head down there?"

"Yeah," she said as she put her glasses back on, "let's do this!"

With that, Shinachiku picked up a stick of wood that he found on the ground and handed it to Sarada. She used her Fireball Jutsu to light the stick like a torch. Once it was lit, Shinachiku took the torch as the two of them started walking down the rocky walkway into the cave where the Chakra Gem lay waiting.

* * *

There you go, another chapter complete! I hope you all enjoyed it.

I'm proud of the way Odaku gets taken out (our was he?), because of the teamwork it took. Also, it was fun to see Hinata get angry, to the point swearing, telling you that despite her usually quiet and shy demeanor, that this was a woman you did not want to mess with, kind of a callback to Road to Ninja Hinata in a way. I also thought it would be a nice treat in case any NaruHina fans were reading this. Just because I personally favor Naruto and Sakura being together does not mean that I dislike Hinata. I reasoned that even if they hadn't gotten together, once Naruto became Hokage she would be one of his most loyal friends regardless, and I've been trying to convey that without suggesting that she was cheating on Kiba in any way. I hope it's been coming across that way.

In speaking of trust, as I was plotting this portion of the story, I was expecting to embrace the 'enemy within' concept and leave Naruto doubting his own friends, not sure which of them, if any of them, were allied with Taka behind his back. But the more I thought about it, not only was it not that interesting, but it seemed out of character to have Naruto doubting so many of his friends. So I decided to get back to the theme of bonds by having them join forces here, and instead limit his suspicions and doubts only to Sasuke.

Hinata's taking out of Odaku was also a payoff of another running gag I've had going for a while. Some of you might have noticed that whenever Odaku interacts with people he always refers to them by either their formal titles or by their surnames, **never** by their first names. I figured that would tell the reader something about this guy and, since it would be so impersonal and annoying, that he would get his comeuppance for it eventually.

As I said in the intro, the idea of the miniature rebreathers that the kids could hold in their mouths was suggested by SilentRaider52, based on something both of us clearly remember from "The Phantom Menace." There is a scene early in that film where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use these devices to go underwater to follow Jar Jar to Otho Gunga, the Gungan's underwater city. I decided that it was just advanced enough that I could make it work in the Naruto universe.

Sasuke says the following line to the kids, "In truth kids, I do not know what you'll find down there, good or bad. You don't have to go if you don't want to. There's no shame in turning back." This was paraphrased from something Balin says to Bilbo in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." Balin's conscious breaks through and he offers Bilbo the same out before descending into Samug's chambers, but Bilbo says that he made a promise to do this and at least has to try, just as Shinachiku does here.

Leave it to Randamu to make all the real pop culture references! His line "It's a Kodak moment" and Sasuke's embarrassment from it was a direct homage to the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie, where Donatello makes the same quip when he and April catch Leonardo and Raphael having a touching moment after Raph wakes up from his coma. It comes right before that terrifying image of Don throwing his head back laughing and you can see the suit actor's mouth inside of Don's own mouth!

The running gag of Randamu making so many terrible water-based jokes in a row was a double reference. The concept itself was inspired by the first two "Austin Powers" films, where Austin would make one terrible pun after another about one of Dr. Evil's henchmen either getting his head bitten off or burning up inside a volcano, and the joke kept going until Austin's lady friend (Vanessa and/or Felicity) put a stop to it.

The last joke in that run, the evil tuna thing, was directly pulled from an episode of "Rocko's Modern Life." I have used that joke in real life and the reaction is just as groaning as it is here.

Oh yes...the "One Piece" reference...do I even need to say more! But did Randamu ever really meed up with Luffy and the Straw Hats? Well..._you_ decide.

I'm also really proud of two of the scene transitions this chapter. The first is from the scene between Tsunade and the kids to Naruto finishing telling his friends about Taka. The second was Naruto mental warning for Shinachiku to 'stay out of hot water', which cuts directly to Shinachiku mentally complaining about how cold the water is! I don't know, just thought those transitions were funny.

Shinachiku rubs his chest to keep himself warm, reasoning that his arms and legs will take care of themselves. This was inspired by a scene from "Batman Begins" where Ra's al Ghul gives the same advice to Bruce Wayne after Bruce falls into a frozen lake at the end of their sword fight.

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to see you all back again for the next one. Until then, catch ya' later!


	17. Chapter 17--Parents and Children

Yo! thesaiyanjedi is back again with the next chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

Sorry again for the long delay, but here it is and I hope you all enjoy it.

I should say upfront that this ended up being the strongest chapter that I have penned in a while, but it tells us more about the characters and gives us some more interactions in preparation for what will come later on.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 17: Parents and Children**

The cave was dark, gloomy, lit only by the light of the flaring torch that the blonde Genin was holding. The raven-haired, bifocaled girl beside him kept a careful watch around them for any surprises.

"Hey Sarada, you okay?" Shinachiku asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm just trying to stay alert and see if I can find anything suspicious."

"Well, I'll leave it to you. A master of the Sharingan like you, I'll bet nothing escapes your notice!" the boy said excitedly.

Sarada frowned, what her old friend said troubled her, a lot. Still, something inside her, for whatever reason, told her that she should come clean with her secret.

"Umm…actually… Well, the thing is…I, uh…"

Shinachiku looked at her in concern. "Sarada, what's wrong?"

Sarada looked down, unable to make eye contact with the boy. Whatever was bugging her was _really_ bugging her.

"Sarada?"

"Shinachiku…If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone else about it?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I mean it, no one! Not your parents, not your sister, not our friends; don't even tell my parents that I told you! _Please_?"

"Okay, okay! I promise! Jeez!" The boy calmed down and faced her. "Now what is it?"

Sarada took a deep breath, "Shina…the truth is…" The girl closed her eyes in shame at what she was about to say, "…I can't use the Sharingan."

Shinachiku was shocked. "What?! But you're an Uchiha!"

"I know! I know! I've been trying my whole life to activate it, but it's never happened. I know that my dad's disappointed in me; he never says it, but I know-"

"Don't say that!" Shinachiku shouted. "Your dad loves you; I saw it up on the surface before we came down here. And I'm sure that you'll awaken your Sharingan one day, you just need to keep training!"

"I've _been_ training," Sarada snapped. "Every day, as hard as I can, since I was a little girl, but nothing's worked! It's been my biggest shame as a ninja, member of the Uchiha clan, and as Sasuke's daughter. I'm meant to be the future of my clan, but instead I can barely see a thing without these damned glasses!"

Shinachiku could see the girl was on the verge of tears. It reminded him of his sister whenever she was sad. He hated to see girls cry, especially strong, pretty girls like Sarada.

His instantly wrapped her into a comforting hug, not even thinking clearing enough to feel embarrassed about it. Sarada, on the other hand, was blushing red as a tomato.

"Don't cry Sarada," the boy told her. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're a strong, smart, brave girl, the coolest girl I know. And you're only twelve, so don't feel too bad that you haven't awakened your Sharingan yet-"

"Shina! My dad awakened his when he was seven! I've been told my Uncle Itachi did it when he was eight!"

"Sarada, come on! Your dad witnessed the entire clan being wiped out that night, and Itachi was…well, Itachi! You shouldn't let your clan's legacy or their expectations of you define who you are. Look at me, I'm nowhere close to my dad's level, or my mom's, but I don't beat myself up over it. I'm still growing up, and the best things in life only come through hard work and sacrifice."

"But—"

He broke the hug and put his hand on her shoulder, "Listen…maybe you're just a late bloomer or something? I know that one day your Sharingan is going to awaken, and even if it doesn't, you're still going to be an awesome shinobi one day Sarada. Believe it!" He smiled warmly at her, "Besides, I think you look good in glasses."

For the first time since this whole conversation started, the young Uchiha heiress smiled, very warmly too. Ever since she first met this boy, way back when they were little, there was always something about him. Sure, he could be a real clown some times and say and do things that got on her nerves, but that was all secondary to the strong, caring, compassionate young man that was speaking to her now.

She couldn't help herself, she embraced Shinachiku in another tight hug, which he did return…But then it went a step further…she planted a kiss right on the boy's cheek.

The young Uzumaki heir could not believe what just happened! He had always thought that Sarada was cute, but never in a million years did he ever suspect this!

Sarada, too, had an almost paralyzing realization of what she had just done. Blushing deeper than she had been that entire day, she was quick to apologize.

"Oh God! I'm sorry Shina! I-I don't know what came over me! I really sorry—"

"It's okay…really." Shinachiku, like Sarada, was blushing as he felt the cheek she had just kissed.

The silence that followed was very awkward and very unbearable…

"So, um, should we keep heading down this tunnel?" Shinachiku asked.

"Y-Yeah, let's do that!" Sarada agreed.

With that, the two kids continued on their mission as if nothing had happened…but neither noticed the smiles each was giving the other.

* * *

"SHIKADAI NARA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

That loud, bellowing voice could only belong to one person, and the poor boy did not need to be told what kind of trouble he was in right now.

'Oh darn it!' Shikadai thought, 'Dad and Shinachiku were absolutely right, mom's can be really scary! Worst…drag…ever."

The doors opened and in stormed the last group of people that the kids wanted to see: Temari, Karui, Kurenai and Might Guy. Temari had agreed to let Inojin sleep over at their house while both of his parents were away on their mission, and Kurenai had accepted Hinata's request to watch the twins while she and Kiba were gone, since Hanabi, much to her regret, was too caught up in clan business to take them in at that time. Besides, if she could handle raising Mirai, then watching the twins for a little while wouldn't be so hard. Bagu's mother was also caught up in clan business and so Kurenai agreed to bring him back to his home also. Guy, despite his age and handicap, was practically balling with enthusiasm to watch over Burandon while both of his former pupils were gone; after all…it wasn't like Neji could do it.

"Shikadai Nara," Temari yelled, "you've got a lot of explaining to do young man! Do you realize that you could have gotten you and all of your friends killed?!"

"Chōchō, you're in deep trouble too young lady," Karui said.

"Ōkami, Tsumi, your parents are going to be furious with you two when they find out what you've done," Kurenai said.

"As will your father your man! _And_ your parent's Inojin! _And_ you father too Chōchō!" Temari added.

"Way to go Burandon!" Guy said with an enthusiastic thumb up. "Your heroic actions today prove that the Springtime of Youth continues to bloom just as strongly within you as it does both with me and your father!"

All of the women in the room, Tsunade and Shizune included, instantly shot a very cold look in the old paraplegic's direction. Guy apologized as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Mom," Shikadai said, "I know you're mad, but if we hadn't done what we did, Hanami might have died from your injuries."

"He is correct Mrs. Nara," Inojin agreed, "Lord Seventh's daughter was stuck all alone, bruised and beaten in that room beneath her home and she was in dire condition. Had we not located her there, who knows what might have happened?"

"But I thought the Anbu had Hanami under their supervision?" Kurenai asked.

"No, what they have is a shadow clone stand-in that was created with the last bit of chakra the girl had," Kakashi interrupted to explain.

"And even then, there is no telling how long that clone is going to last for," Yamato added, "assuming that it hasn't dissipated already."

The three women were all looked at each other, taking in what they were just told. Finally, Karui spoke for them.

"Alright listen kids, we're all proud of you for what you did, and you're right, you did help save Hanami's life. But that doesn't change the fact that you all could have gotten yourselves killed is doing it. If Kakashi and the others hadn't found you, you all would have died and we would never have known about it."

"That's exactly what Lady Tsunade said," Tsumi acknowledged.

"And she's right," Temari confirmed. "In speaking of whom, where is Lady Tsunade?"

"She's still healing Hanami," Konohamaru answered, pointing over to her location.

The former kage was still hard at work healing the girl. Normally this would have been over by now, but the poor girl needed to put in some extra effort to get her healed fast. She was just about finished, thank goodness, but there was still no way that she could allow the pink-haired academy student to leave here without some much needed rest. Besides, with Naruto, Sakura and Shinachiku all missing and with the girl apparently cut off from her own chakra, it was up to all of them to help keep her safe.

For the three women, all three of them mothers, seeing Naruto and Sakura's daughter in such a state was a morbid sight. They all knew Hanami and she was such a sweet, adorable girl; they all knew how much her family loved her. Knowing that some of the village's own Anbu had done this to her was absolutely disgusting. Even worse, it gave all of them images of what could have been their own children's fates had their little rescue mission not gone well.

"That poor girl…" Temari said sadly.

"Whoever did this should have their asses kicked!" Karui exclaimed.

Kurenai nodded, "I've known that girl's parents since they were children themselves; if they were here in the village now this might have destroyed them."

Guy looked particularly sad, "This may be the cruelest, most _un_-youthful sight I have witnessed in a long time."

Kurenai and Guy them looked to their old friend Kakashi for an update.

"Kakashi," Guy addressed his former rival, "you said that Hanami used the last bit of her chakra to create that shadow clone, so shouldn't her chakra reserves have replenished by now?"

"I'm afraid not," Kakashi said. "Her access to her chakra system has been severed by an unknown chemical agent that the Anbu injected into her bloodstream."

"WHAT?!" both Kurenai and Guy yelled, as did Temari and Karui who had been listening in.

"According to the kids," Yamato said, "Hanami told them that it was some clear reddish serum injected into her with a syringe that somehow negated her chakra flow. The clone was the last thing she could do before it was lost completely.

The adults all looked to each other, than turned back to Kakashi and the others.

"So what now?" Kurenai asked.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked confused.

"She can't stay here forever and without her chakra she'll be defenseless. Let's face it; she's still probably too weak to rely on taijutsu."

'Indeed," Guy agreed. "Come to think of it, does anyone else remember that assassin that attacked on Naruto and Sakura's wedding day."

It was like a light bulb suddenly went off insides all of the adult's minds as their eyes widened at what Guy was suggesting.

"Yes, I remember," Kakashi said. "The assassin was nullifying all of our jutsu when we came within range of him and the suspect committed suicide before we could get an explanation out of him."

Yamato finished addressing the connection they all saw, "The exact opposite of what happened to Hanami; our chakra was useless against the assassin, while she can use her own chakra."

Tsunade and Shizune, despite being in another part of the room helping the girl, were listening in on their conversation and were equally as stunned at what Guy had just implied.

"Milady," Shizune said, "this serum that is inside Hanami's blood, would it be possible to extract it from her?"

Tsunade said nothing for a moment as she thought over it deeply.

"It's tricky," she answered. "If the serum is indeed within Hanami's blood, then our only option would be to use the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique to purify the foreign agent from her system. But we don't have the medicinal fluid or the necessary water supply here to perform the procedure."

"And we cannot take her to the hospital as long as the Anbu thinks they have her," Shizune realized.

"Exactly." Tsunade let out a deep sigh, "For right now, we should focus on getting her wounds healed and then we can flesh out a plan. The serum's effects don't appear to be poisonous, so at least we're not on a time table here."

The facts on the table, the two medical ninjas resumed their work on their patient while the other adults continued to discuss their situation.

The kids on the other hand, they were listening in as best they could…but mostly they were trying to figure out whether or not they were still in trouble.

Hanami herself could only lay still and let the influx of healing chakra cure her of her pain. But as laid there, one consistent thought occupied her brain.

'Mommy, Daddy, onii-chan…where are you?'

* * *

The Konoha 11 leapt from tree to tree, Naruto Uzumaki was in the lead with his wife Sakura, followed by their closest friends, all of whom had committed a serious act of treason against their own village just to secure their friend's safety and, hopefully, to help prove their innocence.

And yet, despite everything they needed to stay focused on, there was not a single one of them that did not find themselves thinking about their children. Word would most assuredly spread back to the village that their parent's were aiding a pair of wanted criminals, and what would that mean for the kids then?

Either way, they all knew that their best option was to put those thoughts aside and get to Uzushiogakure and corner Sasuke about what was going on and his supposed involvement in this Taka conspiracy.

They all agreed on one thing: Sasuke may have been their friend, but if he had laid one finger on Naruto and Sakura's son, there'd be hell to pay!

The group had already made it out of Land of Sound and was currently making a long, long trek across the entirety of the Land of Hot Water. it was best their best course of action to avoid any paths that would take them into the Lad of Fire, so travelling southeast straight through the neighboring land was the fastest way available to get to the shore overlooking the Land of Eddies.

"How much further do you think it is?" Ino asked.

"Not sure," Shikamaru answered, "maybe another 100 miles."

"Are you serious?!" Kiba shouted incredulously.

"Kiba," Shino remarked, "you cannot just expect to make it on foot from the Land of Sound all the way to the eastern coast overlooking the ruins of the Land of Eddies in just a couple of hours."

"It doesn't matter!" Naruto shouted. "The sooner we get to the island the sooner we can reach Shinachiku before anything happens."

"Assuming that nothing has happened to the boy already," Sai commented.

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Sakura screamed. "My son is NOT going to die out there and we WILL find him! UNDERSTAND?!"

Sai didn't make any response, only stared at his old friend coldly for her outburst.

"I'm sorry Sai, I'm just-" Sakura couldn't even finish her sentence.

"Hey, we're all worried about him," Ino said to try to comfort her best friend.

"You guys must all hate us," Sakura said. "Because of Naruto and me you've all committed treason and may never see your families again."

There was a moment of silence all, or at least most, of the couple's friends hung their heads in regret, until Hinata decided to speak up.

"Our children are all Genin now; danger is a part of their lives. Whatever happens to us someone will tell them what their parent's have done and the good friends they risked everything for. They'll understand; I know it."

The rest of the group smiled at Hinata's words, save for Shino, but hey, he rarely ever smiled about anything.

"Yeah, Hinata's right," Kiba agreed. "The twins are nearly teens now and they can take care of themselves. It's not like they're dumb enough to believe any of Uragi's crap anyway."

"Bagu's a bright young man, like me," Shino said, "he'll be fine."

"Burandon is a splendid young ninja that has total respect for you two," Lee said to both Naruto and Sakura. "He will not be upset when he learns of what his parents have done." He finished his comment with one of his usual gigantic smiles.

"Yeah, our son's going to be fine," Tenten said; as usual her overly vocal husband did most of the talking for her.

"Inojin will do fine too," Ino said.

"I suppose Shikadai is smart enough to keep himself out of trouble," Shikamaru reasoned. "Personally I'm more worried about what my wife's going to think of all of this. Man this is a drag."

"Me too," Chōji agreed; "Chōchō may be broken up, but I'm not looking forward to the ass kicking that Karui's going to give me when this is all over."

"Well, she'll certainly have a very wide a-" Sai rudely remarked.

"_SAI!_" Naruto shouted in exaggerated desperation. "What did I tell you a long time ago?!"

"Oh right, sorry."

"Huh?" Chōji asked confused, "a wide what?"

"Oh never mind," Sai replied with an almost disturbing innocence. "I just almost forgot that it is a taboo to say anything to you about your excessive weight, that's all."

Everyone in the company instantly stopped in horror, Naruto and Shikamaru both slapping their own foreheads at what was to come.

Ino, meanwhile, could only think of one reaction to her husband's incompetent mistake, "Oh…shit…"

* * *

Back in the Hidden Sound Village, Odaku was finally coming too. The Aburame heir's bug bite and the Hyūga heiress's taijutsu had left him unconscious for several hours. He could not sense the target's chakra, meaning that they were far away by now. When he looked around, he found that his entire squad was missing as well.

Odaku growled under his breath, "Traitors! Backstabbers! Every one of them! When I find them I'll drag the whole lot back to the village in body bags, to hell with orders! It's not like Lord Uragi will care anyway!"

He suddenly stopped; he could sense two strong chakras heading his way…two very strong chakras. Getting his footing, he channeled his returning chakra into his arm as it converted into electricity.

Finally, the sources of the two chakra signatures came into view. Landing before him were two Leaf Village ninjas, each garbed in black and wearing masks covering their whole faces save for their eye areas. One was a tall man with striking blue eyes, the other a fit woman with lovely violet eyes.

Odaku powered down his technique as soon as he realized who he was dealing with.

"Oh, it's you two! I guess Lord Uragi must have gotten worried and decided to call in some of our secret weapons." He huffed in arrogant pride, "You know, normally I'd feel offended that he'd doubt the talents of a loyal operative such as me, but given what's happened, I suppose I wouldn't mind the help this time."

The ninja pair only stared at him coldly, emotionlessly for a moment, enough to actually unnerve the Jōnin. Finally, the male ninja spoke: "Where are Naruto and Sakura Uzumaki?"

"They've both escaped," Odaku confessed.

"Uragi entrusted you with their capture," the female ninja stated. "You shame him with your failure."

"It was not my fault! My squad turned on me! Aburame used some crazy bug to inject poison into me and that Hyūga bitch knocked e out with her Gentle Fist fight style."

"A Jōnin-level Anbu such as you should have been better prepared for any kind of treachery," the male ninja remarked. "Perhaps your reputation has been exaggerated."

"Hey!" Odaku yelled, "I don't need to defend myself against a couple of dead-beats like you two!"

The two ninja only continued to stare at him coldly once again.

Odaku figured he might as well get things moving before they lost the target's trail completely. "Whatever, I suppose now we go after Lord Seventh, his waive, and all their traitorous friends?"

"Yes, _we_ will," said the female ninja. Odaku noticed that she took the male ninja's hand into her own when she said that.

"Do you happen to know the location to which Uzumaki and company are headed?" asked the male ninja.

"Yeah," Odaku answered, "they said they were on their way to find their son. Days earlier the brat left the village on a mission to the Uzushiogakure."

The female ninja's eyes widened slightly, "The Hidden Whirlpool Village? You mean the boy's mission to recover the Chakra Gem hidden within that village?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Was the boy traveling alone?" the male ninja questioned.

"No, Uchiha took the boy with him."

"You mean Fugaku and Mikoto's youngest son?"

"Yeah, who else? …Oh yeah, I forget how long you two have been gone. Still, I was sure you'd been caught up on that by now."

"You are certain that the targets are heading in that direction?" the female ninja asked, as if they had not paid attention to what Odaku had just said.

"Most likely, they said so themselves."

The two black-clad shinobi glanced at one another before they looked back to the Anbu before them.

"Very well Captain," the male ninja said, "we will pursue the suspects immediately.

Odaku triumphantly made a fist with his right hand and it too his heart as he stood straight and stiff, performing the salute of his hidden order. "HAIL TAKA!"

…It was the last action the Anbu Captain would ever do. No sooner was the gesture completed than the male ninja, with inhuman speeds that only Naruto himself could potentially rival, leapt over and cut Odaku's head clean off with a kunai.

As the bloodied, severed head rolled onto the forest floor and the body fell limp, The mysterious masked ninja clothed in black each performed the same salute before heading east in search of their targets, "HAIL TAKA!"

* * *

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that; sorry if there wasn't a whole lot of action this time.

There weren't really any references this time, save for callbacks to the series itself. For instance, having Shinachiku using his father's famous catchphrase to cheer up Sarada, or Sai's lack of familiarity with human contact coming back long enough for him to forget about Chōji famous hatred for being mocked about his weight. For the record, I have always equated this gag to the running joke seen in the "Back to the Future" sequels of Marty McFly's pension for loosing self control whenever someone calls him chicken. I'm not saying that Kishimoto may have been inspired by that when he first came up with the Chōji gag, but it is very similar.

I'd gotten a few questions form some of my reader's asking me about Sarada's Sharingan in this story, and I decided, after questioning why a member of the Uchiha clan would ever need to wear glasses in the first place, both in the canon ending and my own AU, and after thinking about it, I decided that the most obvious answer was that, because her mother was not from the clan, she had not been able to activate it and was born nearsighted instead. As the first Uchiha born after the massacre and the heiress of the clan, this deficiency would be a great source of grief for her. I;m not saying that Sasuke necessarily thinks ill of her for it, but she _thinks_ he does. I have a theory that when this "Boruto" movie or Part III comes out that Kishimoto might play around with similar ideas for Sarada.

I got Temari, Karui, Kurenai and Guy in on what has been going on within the village. I chose to let Kurenai look after the twins and to agree to take Bagu back to his home because...well, frankly, I don't have any real ideas for either Hanabi or Shino's unknown wife. Maybe Hanabi could do something later, but I can't say for sure.

Lastly, there was a reason why I ended the chapter by bringing back the Taka assassins I set up Chapter 14. I dare not give anything away, but I hopefully have another major twist lined up!

Well, that's all I've got for today! See y'all next time, and thank you all for your support! HAIL TAKA!


	18. Chapter 18--Some Assembly Required

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with another chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure."

I applaud all of you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews of this story all of this time. As of the time of this writing I have earned over 100 reviews for this story, and I am immensely grateful for that. Thank you, ALL OF YOU GUYS, for all of your support!

Like my previous chapter, this one came off pretty short. But either way I hope what I came up with this time is entertaining enough to keep you interested and guessing.

With all of that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 18: Some Assembly Required**

The Konoha 11 had taken a brief rest after running for so long…That, and they felt they needed to give Sai an opportunity to recuperate after the beating he got from Chōji. Ino was able to use her own training in medical ninjutsu to heal her husband, but she still gave him a thorough verbal chastising for making such a thing.

The rest of the group was resting their feet and some were delving into their food rations, including Chōji.

"Alright," Naruto spoke up, "we rest for another fifteen minutes max, than we continue on and don't stop until we get to the eastern coast. I'm sure I already know the answer to this, but has everyone here been taught the walk on water exercise?" Everyone nodded their heads and some even made a 'Are you kidding?' face at their orange-clad leader. "That's what I thought. No offense, but I wanted to be sure that all of us could make it to the island."

"And what's the plan for when we get there?" asked Shino. "Are we supposed to just let loose and attack Sasuke the instant we see him?"

"No!" Naruto shouted. "I mean, maybe, I mean, only if Shinachiku's…" Naruto could not even finish his own sentence.

"Naruto," Sakura put her arms around her husband, "neither one of us knows if Sasuke really is a part of this."

"You heard what that toad told us Sakura; he knocked him out and asked us to meet while he 'keeps our son safe.'"

"Which means that Shina should still be fine when we get there, and if he isn't…" Now Sakura was the one that couldn't finish her own sentence.

"We'll find him Sakura," Ino placed her hand on her best friend's shoulder. "We all will."

Sakura was able to find the strength to resist crying; Lord knows she has been doing far too much of that these past few days.

"That being the case," Shikamaru interrupted, "Shino does still raise a valid point. Should the worst case scenario turn out to be true, then we will need some sort of plan to apprehend Sasuke when we find him."

"Naruto, Sakura," Sai said, "I understand how both of you must be feeling…but I'm inclined to agree with Shikamaru. Sasuke is an extremely powerful ninja, powerful enough to rival even you. We cannot just show up there out of the blue and expect to overcome him without a plan."

"If all goes well, then we shouldn't need a plan," Naruto defended. "Like I told you, we are going to try talking first, only then can Sakura and I get the answers that we need. Besides, I didn't go through five years of training and searching to bring my best friend back home just to kill him now!"

"Naruto," Sai stated, "I know that all of this must be confounding to you, but you cannot afford to let your loyalties to your son and your friend confound your judgment. Don't forget, the last time you and Sasuke fought it cost you your arm."

Naruto clenched his bandaged, prosthetic right hand in irritation. "So, I got it back didn't I? And we _both_ went above and beyond that day, Sasuke lost his arm too!"

Sakura was feeling overcome with regret. She could still remember the day that Naruto underwent his operation…

* * *

Sakura could see Naruto in the waiting room of Konoha Hospital, currently undergoing the final stages of restoration following the destruction of the village by Pain. The 17-year old blonde Chūnin was reading a magazine as he waited patiently for an important operation. He was forced to set the magazine in his lap as he could not hold it up to his face like a normal person would…Fortunately, that was going to change very soon.

After the war and Sasuke's trial were over, Tsunade came to Naruto and offered both him and Sasuke the chance to regrow their forearms that were lost in their final battle at the Valley of the End. Naruto accepted, but Sasuke did not. He insisted that he needed to go see the world and begin his work to redeem his clan's name. They tried begging him to at least stay long enough for this, but the boy's mind was made up.

Sakura remembered that day clearly. She had said goodbye to the man she had thought she loved for most of her life. She had even asked to join him on his quest, but he had refused her company once again. He told her that she needed to stay and figure out where her true feeling lie.

'What did he mean by that?' She still did not know the answer.

She remembered that right before Sasuke left again, he tapped her broad forehead and promised to come back, but did not state when. He parted ways with Naruto as well, the blonde at last returning his old, scarred Leaf Village headband from way back in their Genin days. They exchanged a few last words but Sakura was too far away to make out what they were, besides, she felt that after all that's happened that this was a private conversation between her two teammates.

Right now she watched him, sitting there struggling with even the simplest of tasks just because of what he'd lost…and she blamed herself for it. That missing arm was a constant reminder of their relationship. All of the sacrifice, all of the turmoil and grief and loss he went through just because of that stupid, selfish promise she asked of him when he was just a girl. Sakura thanked God that the boy didn't lose anything more! If either of them had died that day…she didn't know what she'd do.

Oh well, no sense delaying things anymore.

"Naruto," Sakura called out getting the boy's attention, "Lady Tsunade will see you now."

He put the magazine back and followed her down the halls to the operating room. There was an uncomfortable silence as they walked and it was the knucklehead that had to break the tension.

"Hey, you okay Sakura?"

"Huh? Y-Yeah, I'm fine…Listen, Lady Tsunade did give you some of the details about this procedure right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Naruto…you're going to have to go easy on this new arm for a few days so that it can properly bond to your body. And the attachment process…it will be painful for you."

"I'm used to pain Sakura."

"DON'T ACT TOUGH YOU IDIOT! THIS IS SERIOUS!"

The uncomfortable silence came back all over again. "Sorry Naruto. I shouldn't have yelled at you…again."

"It's okay Sakura. I know it's going to hurt, but I can handle it." Naruto put on one of his signature goofy grins, "especially if an awesome medical ninja like you is going to help out!"

Sakura wasn't smiling back, "Actually Naruto…I'm not going to be working on you today."

"What? Why?"

"Lady Tsunade is concerned that, given everything that's happened, that I may be too 'emotionally compromised' by our bond to stay focused on the procedure."

"That's bullshit! You're the most professional woman I know!"

"Yeah but…I think she's right. Naruto, if this goes wrong, who knows what kind of damage it could do to your body. You could end up worse than you are now! You need a physician who can stay calm and collected; who can stay totally focused on what she's doing and not let her feelings get in the way of things…" She stopped in the middle of, turning to the boy that followed behind her, her eyes filled with worry and regret. "You mean a lot to me Naruto, and I've caused you too much grief already."

"No, you haven't—"

"Yes I have! And don't you dare tell me I haven't! All I've ever been in a nuisance, always hitting and yelling at you, putting the burden of bringing Sasuke back on your shoulders, and now look at you! You lost an arm because of _my_ selfishness! You almost threw away your career because of me"

"You forget that _I_ wanted Sasuke back as badly as you did! I lost my arm and nearly lost my career because of _my_ actions, not yours!" Naruto let out a deep sigh, "Look, if you're not going to be working on this, then I think I'll just go home."

Sakura was dumbstruck, "W-What?"

"Sakura, I don't trust anyone else with this but you."

"Naruto…" she was at a loss for words. "You really mean that?"

"Heck yeah! Now why don't we forget this whole argument happened and go tell Baa-chan that you're going to be helping with this?"

"Naruto…you really want to trust me with this?"

"Yeah Sakura, I have complete and total faith in you…I always have."

That was all that Sakura needed to hear. He had done it yet again; he had managed to give her the hope and inspiration that she needed. He believed in her even when she didn't believe in herself.

"Arigato Naruto."

They walked into the waiting room and made their case to Tsunade who, after some discussion with Sakura herself, agreed to allow Sakura to assist in the operation.

Naruto was lying on an operating table as Shizune came in with the regrown arm sealed in a box. He needed to be strapped down so keep him from thrashing around too much. He also needed to have his shirt off for the procedure so Sakura was fighting a blush that crept onto her face. Tsunade noticed this and while normally she would chastise one of her assistants for unprofessional behavior, this time she just smirked and carried on.

"So what happens now?" Naruto asked. "Do we just sow the arm on and that's it?"

"No," Tsunade said, "actually we're going to press the forearm against your stump and use ninjutsu to fuse them together. Your nerve endings and receptors should regenerate on their own."

"Sakura said this might hurt?"

"…Yeah, it will sting really badly, like your own flesh and bones are getting welded together." She handed Naruto a folded towel, "Here, bite down on this."

Naruto put the towel in his mouth and waited for things to begin.

"Shizune," Tsunade called out, "could you please bring the arm over here?"

The middle-aged woman brought the box over and opened it. She pulled out a pale, white forearm that was fully grown and ready to be applied to the young man's stump.

"Alright, Shizune, you hold the arm in place. Sakura, you and I will enact the fusing process."

"HAI M'LADY!" both women declared.

It was time to begin. Shizune held the arm in place, making sure that the bone marrow and blood vessels were all properly aligned. The last thing that Naruto needed was to have his new arm misaligned and bend the wrong way.

Tsunade and Sakura got into the position around Naruto's right side, their hands already glowing with green chakra.

"Alright, are you ready Sakura?"

"…Yeah, I'm ready." The pinkette turned to her patient—no, her friend, and placed her hand on his chest. "Are you sure you're ready Naruto?"

"I'm ready Sakura," he said even with the towel still in his mouth.

With that, Sakura got back into position and she and her master harnessed all of their chakra and began using it to permanently bind the arm to Naruto.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Naruto screamed in agony, his cries muffled by the towel in his mouth, as the burning singe of flesh and bone fusing together began. It was quite possibly the worst pain he ever went through.

The experience was no less pleasant for Sakura. Hearing the boy scream in agony because of something she was contributing to…No, she needed to stay focused on her duty, once it was over everything would be back to normal again…she hoped.

Layer by layer the muscles, bone marrow, arteries, veins and nerve endings were combining and the process came closer and closer to completion.

"SAKURA!" Tsunade shouted, "Keep focused, you're nearly finished on your section. At this rate the process should be done in less than an hour.

That hour was perhaps the most excruciating of Naruto's life. The burning sting was unbearable. But there was nothing he could do about it. He needed to be strong; he could get through this! He was Naruto Uzumaki, hero of the Hidden Leaf Village!

After a little over 45 minutes later, Naruto heard the words that were like a Godsend to his ears.

"Finished!"

Naruto slumped down on table totally exhausted and still in pain. His form was drenched in sweat and he was struggling to catch his breath.

Shizune took the towel out of his mouth and the jinchūriki let out a gasp.

"Naruto!" Sakura embraced her arms around his exhausted form and kept saying "I'm sorry" over and over again.

"It's okay…Sakura…I'm…feeling…a lot better…already." The boy put on the best smile he could to alleviate any undeserved guilt that the girl was feeling.

"Shizune," Tsunade said as she observed her pupil and the closest thing she'll ever have to a son, "could you please remove Naruto's restraints?"

Shizune did so and Naruto, with some minor assistance from Sakura and Shizune, sat up and looked at his new pale white right forearm. He stared at it as he moved his fingers and made a fist to test to see how well it worked.

"How does it feel?" asked Sakura.

_Feel…_

"Can I have some ice please?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade signaled for Shizune to go get some. She came back a moment later with a bag filled with ice, but neither she nor any of the other women knew what Naruto wanted it for. So they were half-surprised when the boy stuck his entire forearm inside the bag of ice.

"Naruto, what are you doing?!" Tsunade asked in shock.

"I need to check something." He held it there for a few moments until he could not bear it anymore and yanked his arm out. He smiled. "Cold…it actually feels cold. Baa-chan, I think this new arm is going to work just fine!"

The three women all smiled and even sighed in relief at their success. Sakura then got out some bandages and proceeded to wrap his teammate's arm up in them so neither he nor anyone else would be repulsed by the ugly white look of his new appendage.

"Thank you Sakura…for everything," said Naruto as she finished wrapping up his arm, which he continued moving and bending to test the full movement capacity of.

"You're welcome Naruto."

Sakura was relieved at their job well done. Her closest friend and teammate was now whole again. As she looked at the new, bandaged arm made to replace the old one, she had expected that the guilt she felt whenever she saw the bare stump would now go away…It didn't.

* * *

…That was a long time ago. Her feelings of guilt were pretty much over with by now, thanks to seventeen years of love shared between them.

"So how about it Naruto?" asked Kiba. "What are we going to do once we make it to Sasuke?"

Sakura turned to her husband as he let out a very heavy sigh. He knew that this was not an easy possibility for him to accept, but he needed to be an adult now, and a good leader.

"Okay guys gather around, here's the plan…"

* * *

"…You really think this plan's going to work?" Suigetsu asked his leader.

"We can only hope so," Sasuke answered. "I have faith in both of them; they will find the Chakra Gem, I know it."

"They've been down there a while now," Karin noted with a clear and understandable trace of worry. "Sasuke, maybe we should go down there and look for them?"

"No. This is their mission now; we cannot interfere."

"But what if they've run out of air already?"

"What if they've found something already? Karin, we need to trust in the kids now; they both know what they're doing."

"They're just children Sasuke!"

"So were we once. The Forest of Death, bridge disputes, wars, these are no places to take or train children, and yet that is where I was forced to grow up. I was raised in the midst of danger all my youth, and so was Naruto."

"Yeah, I mean what's the worst thing that can happen to them down there anyway?" asked Randamu. "Unless they come across some giant man-eating shark…or they find an ancient underwater city filled with vicious merpeople…or they find a kraken, or they get sucked into some mysterious triangular vortex that human beings fall into only to never return—"

"SHUT UP!" Karin shouted. "Must you always put a damper on everything with your irritating comments?!"

"…Yes."

"In all seriousness," Jūgo interjected, "they have been down there for a while now. How can we know for sure that something hasn't happened?"

"Because," Sasuke answered, "before they left I gave Sarada a microphone so we could stay in contact if necessary. She knows to send a signal if she or Shinachiku need any help, and she hasn't contacted me yet."

"Meaning she is either unable to respond, or unwilling to respond."

"Or it could simply mean that she had nothing to respond about yet."

"Or she could just be enjoying her alone time with the kid." Everyone turned and scowled at Randamu, particularly her parents. "What? Kids their age have hormones, it's an innocent, beautiful thing; let them have fun on their little treasure hunt. What wrong with a little preteen flirting on the side?"

* * *

"Achoo!" Both of the kids sneezed at the exact same time as they continued down the dark and wet tunnel.

"Bless you!" They both said at the same time…it was weird.

"You suppose somebody's talking about us somewhere?" Shinachiku asked.

"Oh please! You don't really believe in that myth, do you?" Sarada rolled her eyes and Shinachiku just shrugged his shoulders. "So how far do you think this tunnel goes?"

"I don't know," Shinachiku said, "but be prepared for anything."

They kept walking…and walking…and walking…and they never found anything important, or ever remotely interesting.

"Well, this is getting boring." Shinachiku stated bluntly.

"No kidding," Sarada agreed, "how much further does this tunnel go?"

"I don't know" was all the boy could say.

The pair continued their trek until they came to an empty room containing what looked like a ruined statue broken into five pieces. They also noticed a weapon lying on the ground in the far corner, a spear of some kind.

"Now what?" Shinachiku asked no one in particular.

"No one could have been down here for centuries, decades at least," Sarada said. "So what could have happened to this statue?"

"Must have happened a long time ago I guess," Shinachiku figured.

They noticed on the far wall behind the ruined statue was a door, a sealed door.

"Looks like that door is our way out of here" Sarada noted.

The two kids went to the door and pushed with all of their might, Shinachiku even channeling his chakra-enhanced strength that he learned for his mother, but nothing they did seemed to be moving the door.

"Maybe we can find a keyhole or something?" Shinachiku suggested.

"And what good would that do us?" Sarada snapped, "We don't have a key."

"Oh yeah…Well, you got a better idea?"

"The raven-haired girl looked around the room for something, anything, that might be a clue…then she noticed the spear.

"Let's try using that spear over there to pry the door open."

The kids ran over to the corner of the room and grabbed the spear. It was rather large and heavy so it took both of them to lift it. They brought it over to the sealed door and jabbed one of the pointed ends into the crevice.

"Okay, on the count of three," Sarada ordered. "One…Two…THREE!"

The two Genin grunted and heaved as they pushed and pulled the spear with all of they might, hoping that their effort would force the door to open itself. But after trying for fifteen minutes solid, the door still remained seal completely shut.

"Damn it!" Shinachiku cursed, "This isn't working!"

"There's got to be something here we're not seeing," Sarada theorized. "Maybe this is all some sort of puzzle?"

Something went off in Shinachiku's brain as soon as she said that, 'Puzzle?'

He looked back at the ruined statue in the center of the room, broken into five parts: the base that was still attacked to the floor, an upper torso, two arms, and the head. The pieces were remarkably whole in how their condition was lying on the floor.

"Wait a minute," he told Sarada as he walked over and started collecting pieces of the statue.

"What are you doing?" Sarada asked.

"You said that this might be some sort of puzzle, well, I'm thinking I just found it."

He first gathered the torso piece and set it on top of the base section. Then he grabbed one of the arms and put it in its proper place, locking it in place because of a stone protrusion where the joint would be that fit snugly in to the other piece of the statue. He grabbed the other arm and attached it the same way. He then grabbed the head section and set it on top of the statue.

The piece was complete, the statue was whole…and yet the door _still_ did not open.

"What the hell?" Shinachiku said to no one. "I don't get it. What's missing?"

Sarada was impressed with Shinachiku's perception to the hidden puzzle, but found her mind wandering as she herself searched for a missing piece of the puzzle, whatever that was.

And then she saw it, the pose that the statue was in. It looked like it was holding something in its hand that it was about to throw.

"Shinachiku!" Sarada shouted, "Come over here and help me with this!"

She grabbed one end of the spear and Shinachiku, quickly catching on, ran over to grab the other end. Together, they both carried the heavy spear over to the statue and, with great care, set it into place in the statue's hand.

And then it finally happened. The floor began to rumble and shake, sounds of stone scrapping against stone echoed throughout the room, and looking at the far wall, they both could see the stone door finally opening up.

After the door opened, they kids looked at each other and smiled.

"Good thinking with the statue Shinachiku," Sarada complemented.

"Good thinking with the spear Sarada," Shinachiku complemented right back.

With that, the two kids went through the door to continue their quest to the Chakra Gem the lay at the end of the tunnel.

* * *

Uragi Rimonō sat within his office signing the typical contracts and activity approvals that comes with being Hokage. He wasn't feeling particularly pleased with all of this work, nor was he feeling annoyed by it, it was just a usual day.

His focus was interrupted by an Anbu Blacks Op entering his office.

"Forgive us Lord Hokage!"

"What is the meaning of this?" Uragi demanded.

"We have a possible emergency sir; it concerns the Seventh's daughter."

"What about her?"

"We've kept her under our constant supervision for days as ordered, but something has gone wrong."

Uragi scowled, "What do you mean?"

"The girl started convulsing and getting weak, and then she dissipated in a puff of smoke."

Now Uragi was alarmed, "A substitution?"

"No my Lord…we believe she was a Shadow Clone the whole time."

'Damn it!' Uragi contemplated, 'The girl must have used the last of her chakra to create the clone as a decoy before the serum took full effect!'

"Alright!" Uragi ordered the Anbu, "send word to the Anbu to do a search and recovery for the girl; find her at all costs. Arrest anyone harboring her under charges of conspiracy…Start by investigating my assistant."

"Lady Shizune sir?" the Anbu asked in surprised.

"Hai, she may have heard more than she needs to know, let's leave it at that. She had not returned from her 'lunch break' which was hours ago, so start by tracking her steps. Bring her in and anyone else that may be harboring the girl."

"Hai my Lord!" the Anbu said as he prepared to leave.

"WAIT!" Uragi ordered, stopping the Anbu before he left the office. "If Shizune really has heard too much, then she most likely went to Tsunade first…" Uragi contemplated for a moment. "Take another one of our 'special agents' with you in preparation for her involvement."

"My Lord, do you mean…?"

"Yes, summon the Sannin."

* * *

There you go; another chapter in the can!

There were really no references that inspired me this time, except for a very, very vague one. When I was a kid I watched Nickelodeon, which had some children's games shows, including one called "Legends of the Hidden Temple." At the end of every episode, the child contestants ran through a maze themed like an ancient temple to claim a historical relic to win a grand prize. In each room of the maze the contestants had to complete some sort of puzzle to open the door to the next room. One puzzle that was used virtually every episode was in a room called the "Shrine of the Silver Monkey," where contestants had to assemble a silver money idol out of three separate pieces to open the door. The scene with Shinachiku and Sarada solving the statue puzzle was somewhat inspired by my memories of that.

Well, that's about all I've got for now. I hope you all enjoyed it. Until next time, see ya!


	19. Chapter 19--Dark Reunions

Greetings everyone! thesaiyanjedi is back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Lately, I've been a bit worried that the pacing and escalation of this story has been slacking a bit, so I hope that this newest chapter will help fix some of that. As usual, keep your eyes out for any surprise references, and I hope all of you enjoy.

Now then, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 19: Dark Reunions**

Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages and the most powerful village in the Land of Wind. This village did not have a flawless history, but they were nevertheless widely regarded for their strength, skill, and for producing some the most powerful shinobi in the world.

One such shinobi is their current leader, the Fifth Kazekage. He is a man in his thirties with somewhat shorter stature, auburn hair, fair skin, pale blue-green eyes surrounded by thick black rings similar to a tanuki, and the kanji symbol for 'love' carved into the side of his head. He wears a red uniform, and at his side is strapped a gourd filled with living sand...yes, _living_ sand. This shinobi was born prematurely at the cost of his mother's life, but with her dying breath the mother transferred her own power into the sand, so that it would spring from the gourd to serve and protect her son in times of crisis.

This shinobi was a former mass murderer turned reformed hero, leader of the Hidden Sand Village, Regional Commander and Fourth Division leader during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, and the former jinchūriki of Shukaku, the One-Tailed Tanuki. His name...Gaara of the Desert.

Despite the sins of his youth, Gaara had committed himself to redeeming his life and striving to become a true hero to his people, and he owed it all to one man...his closest friend, Naruto Uzumaki. Ever since they first met, and fought, during Orochimaru's attack on Konohagakure back when they were mere Genin taking the Chūnin Exams, Naruto's determination, his selflessness, and the strength he draws from others even after living a life so similar to his own, has motivated him unlike anything else had before. It was Naruto's desire to one day become Hokage that motivated Gaara to take up his father's former post as Kazekage, it was Naruto that got him to care for and want to protect others, starting with reforging his bonds with his older brother and sister, and it was Naruto that was his first person he could remember in a long time that was willing to be his friend, ever after all the terrible things he had done...including nearly killing Naruto's friend Rock Lee as well as the young pink-haired girl that would one day become Naruto's wife...Yeah, Gaara wasn't particularly proud of those things.

Bottom line, Naruto was Gaara's closest friend and he would do anything to help him; hell, if it wasn't for Gaara's quick actions in taking him to Sakura and the Fourth Hokage during the war, Naruto wouldn't be alive today, but instead a victim of the same fate that once claimed him. Gaara never told anyone this, but the only reason he was still alive today was because of the self-sacrifice made by Lady Chiyo, and if saving Naruto's life had required him to make the same sacrifice, he would.

It was for all of these reasons that Gaara refused to believe the stories that were coming out of the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto and Sakura as wanted fugitives for harboring top secret information from their village? It didn't make any sense! Naruto was his best friend, he had been a guest of honor at their wedding, he had been a guest at his house, there was no possibility that any of this was true.

But that just left plenty of unanswered questions: What was really going on? Why were they on the run? And most importantly, what could Gaara do to help them?

'Naruto,' thought the Kazekage as he sat at his desk filing his usual paperwork, 'why didn't you and Sakura come to me. I could have given you both refuge while we figured this out.' Gaara sighed, "Just be careful old friend."

There was a knock on the door to Gaara's office, "Come in."

The door opened to reveal an adult male in his late thirties, garbed in the standard attire of the Sand Village shinobi, draped over with a black cloak and hood. On the man's face were a series of violet markings, face paint, which gave away the man's identity even to those who could not recognize his face as instantly as Gaara could.

"What can I do for you Kankurō?" Gaara asked.

"Hey little bro," the puppet master said casually, "I wanted to inform you that Councilman Uragi from Konoha has called a Kage Summit to discuss a proposal he would like to share with all of us."

"What kind of proposal?"

"He wouldn't say exactly, only that it involves securing something that in the wrong hands could spell disaster for any of the Hidden Villages."

"And who is Councilman Uragi to call for such a meeting?" Gaara asked with a singe of scorn in his usually monotone voice. "He is no Kage himself, and with Naruto currently on the run—"

"Gaara!" Kankurō shouted, "You need to put that bias aside for now. Look, I know that he's your friend—hell, if not for him you wouldn't be who you are now and I wouldn't even be alive if not for his wife—but we still need to consider that there may be more gong on than what we know—"

"Do you mean to tell me that you believe in these rumors Kankurō?"

"No, of course I don't, I'm just saying—" Kankurō took a deep sigh, "The other three Kages, they're not as loyal and trusting of Naruto as you are Gaara. They like him, yes, but none of them have gone through as much with him as you have. They may take offense if you try defending a criminal."

"You mean like the reaction Naruto received for defending Uchiha?"

"Yes. What I'm trying to say is, defend Naruto if you must but...just don't take anything anyone says too personally, okay?"

Gaara merely stared at his brother coldly before he gave his answer, "I'll consider it."

'Well, I guess that's about all I can expect,' Kankurō thought.

"By the way, has Sunako gotten out of school yet?" Gaara asked.

"No, she still has a few hours before she gets out. Why?"

"I want you to do me a favor Kankurō; when her training gets out, tell her to come to my office. Tell her that her father has a favor he wants to ask of her."

* * *

In the underground tunnel beneath the seas of the Land of Whirlpools, Shinachiku Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha continued their trek toward their prize. They had already solved one puzzle that stood in the way of them and the Chakra Gem, there was no telling whether of not they would find another.

Soon enough they came to another room, this time a long, but very narrow chamber, empty save for a single door on the far side, and what appeared to be a set of three keys hanging individually next to the door.

"Well," Shinachiku said, "I guess we've got to use one of these keys to go any further."

"Obviously," Sarada replied, "but which one?" The bifocled girl looked at the keys more closely and noticed something curious. "And why are they labeled 'A,' 'C' and 'D'?"

Shinachiku held his arms up and shrugged his shoulders, "Don't look at me."

Sarada looked at the keys for any possible tell which was the correct one, or to why the 'B' key was missing. Try as she might, she could not think of anything.

"I think were going to have to wing this one," she said. "Lets try 'D.'"

She grabbed the key labeled 'D' from the wall and inserted it into the keyhole, then turned the key...

...The door did not open. Instead, they could hear a single note echo through the room for just a moment...followed by two gigantic spinning blades coming out of the walls directly at them!

"LOOK OUT!" Shinachiku yelled.

The boy grabbed the girl by her shirt and quickly through her against the left-hand wall just before the two blades made contact and got themselves stuck into the wall where the door was.

"What the hell was that?!" Shinachiku yelled.

"Clearly it was a booby trap set up to keep anyone from reaching the gem," Sarada acknowledged. "If we had been a millisecond shorter we both could have been chopped in half! Our only chance is to pick the correct key to open the door. But which one is it? There has got to be more to this puzzle that we're not seeing."

As Sarada stood there is deep thought before she made any more movements, Shinachiku was putting his brain to work also.

'Three keys...'A', 'C' and 'D'...no 'B' key...the 'D' key causes two razor sharp blades to shoot out at us...' He then remembered that note that they heard before the blades came out. 'Two razor sharp blades...two sharps...the key of D...Wait a minute! I think I've got it!'

As Shinachiku was putting things together, Sarada was reaching for another key. "Let's try 'A' this time—"

"NO WAIT!" Shinachiku yelled at the top of his voice as he grabbed her wrist, forcing her to drop the key onto the floor.

"Shinachiku, what are you doing?!" Sarada asked as she struggled to break free of his grip.

"Sarada, if you turn _that_ key then next time it'll be _three_ blades!"

"What?! But how do you—?"

Shinachiku pulled the last remaining key from the wall and offered it to the raven-haired kunoichi. "It's the 'C' key; trust me!"

Sarada looked at him curiously for a moment, but then took the key and put it inside the keyhole. Still, both kids did make sure to press themselves against the wall and were prepared to get out of the way to what free space was left in case this didn't work.

Taking a deep breath, Sarada turned the key...

...There was another note heard throughout the room...but this time the door opened.

Both kids let out a sigh of relief as Sarada spoke, "Okay Shina, how did you guess that the 'C' key was the right one?"

"That note that we heard before those blades came out tipped me off. This whole thing is a musical puzzle."

"A _musical_ puzzle?"

"Yeah. Think about it: the key of 'D' had two sharps, while the key of 'A' has three—"

"But the key of 'C'' has no sharps," Sarada finished Shinachiku's sentence in understanding.

"Exactly. That also why there's no 'B' key, because the key of 'B' doesn't exist, only the key of 'B-flat.'"

"Wow...I'm impressed Shinachiku." Sarada complemented. "Two puzzles in a row, you're pretty smart, just like Aunt Sakura."

The boy blushed at her complement. "Thanks."

Suddenly the girl got a sly smirk on her face as she got an idea. "Say, in speaking of music, how about we make this thing a bit more interesting?"

The boy's blush disappeared in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"How about if we make it out of here alive, you have to sing to me with that gorgeous voice of yours, any song I choose, however many I choose?"

"What?! Why would I agree to that?!"

"Consider it my consolation for not telling your parents about those dirty magazines I found under your bed."

"_**WHAT?!**_ How the hell do you know—"

"I've seen your room remember? I peaked under your bed while you were off going to the bathroom..." Sarada's smirk got even wider and more evil, "Can't imagine what a early teen like you might have been doing in the bathroom all by yourself."

"Sarada!" The poor boy was completely, utterly embarrassed. "Please, _please_ don't tell anyone! If my mom found out about that collection she'd murder me!"

"So...do we have a deal?"

Shinachiku scowled in utter defeat, but he ultimately shook the girl's hand. "Deal."

Sarada smiled in glee, she loved hearing Shina sing, and now she was going to get treated to her own private concert.

"Great," she relied in a happy mood. "Now lets keep moving."

As they both went through the now open door down yet another tunnel, something else occurred to Shinachiku.

"Hey Sarada?"

"Yeah?"

"No offense, but...why were you looking under my bed for in the first place?"

Now it was Sarada's turn to stop dead in her tracks and blush in embarrassment. "Umm...no reason."

* * *

_Knock! Knock!_

There was a knock on the safe house where the shinobi allies were currently located.

"I'll go check it!" Kakashi declared.

The former Copy Ninja walked over to the door to find out who was there. He opened it only slightly.

"Hello?"

On the other side of the door was a squadron of Anbu, all of whom had a serious demeanor on their faces as they looked back at the former kage.

"Lord Sixth," one of the Anbu addressed, "what are you doing here sir?"

"I was investigating a possible theft from a local jewelry store. I tracked the suspect to this location."

The Anbu scolded at the silver-haired old man, "You're a terrible liar, Kakashi-sensei."

"I've been told that a lot, but this time I insist that it is the truth. But in any case, how may I help you gentlemen?"

"Councilman Uragi has us searching for Lady Shizune. She has not returned from her lunch break and Lord Hokage has some important duties for her to complete."

"_Lord Hokage?_" Kakashi questioned, "forgive me, but as I understood it Lord Uragi was only _interim_-Hokage until Naruto has been cleared of any wrongdoing?"

"Lord Sixth, I realize that Lord Seventh was your student, but you need to learn to accept the truth that Naruto is a fugitive now. He and his wife are traitors to our entire village—"

"WATCH YOUR MOUTH!"

It was not Kakashi that made that outburst. Walking up to the door, possessed by an anger he momentarily could not control, was Konohamaru Sarutobi.

"Sarutobi," one of the Anbu addressed, "why are you here as well?"

"Kakashi and I were together when we witnessed the thief make his escape and we tracked the suspect here together," Konohamaru lied.

The Anbu merely glanced at one another before looking back to the Jōnin and the retired Kage.

"Uragi had given us orders to search the village for Lady Shizune's whereabouts," one of the Anbu stated. "May we please step inside to search the premises?"

"That is not a wise idea," Kakashi answered, "this location is still under our investigation and any outside interference may allow the suspect to escape."

"Step aside Kakashi; that's the interim-Hokage's orders!"

Kakashi and Konohamaru glanced at one another before they stepped aside to allow the Anbu into the safe house.

"Well Kakashi," one of the Anbu said, "it seems that we have found a criminal here after all."

Their target, Shizune, was indeed there, along with Lady Tsunade, Kurenai, Might Guy, Captain Yamato, Temari and Karui were all gathered in the safe house. Those, however, were the only people left to their visible eyes.

"Lady Shizune," one of the Anbu addressed, "under orders from Councilman Uragi, you, Lady Tsunade, and everyone else here are hereby under arrest for conspiracy against the Hidden Leaf Village."

"What?!" Tsunade yelled. "What gives you the right?!"

"Lord Uragi gives us the right! Lord Seventh's daughter has disappeared from our protective custody and we have reason to believe that Shizune may be involved. As such we are under orders to arrest her and any accomplices should we find her." The Anbu turned to Shizune directly, "Where is the girl?"

"I had nothing to do with it, I swear," Shizune lied. "I'm sorry if I didn't come back from lunch in time, I just got distracted today. Let me explain to Uragi, I'm sure he'll—"

"We're sorry miss, but we're under orders."

The Anbu made a move to arrest Shizune, until a chakra-enhanced fist slammed into the ground, causing a minor trembler.

"Touch her, or any of us, and I'll destroy all of you!" Tsunade declared with deadly seriousness.

"Stand down Tsunade!"

That command came from a mysterious figure that made his way up to the front of the group. The figure had a deep, masculine voice, a bulky frame and tall height, but his identity was completely disguised but a dark cloak and hood.

Tsunade did stop, but is was not because of the man's physique, but because of his voice.

The man then removed his hood to reveal his face...It shocked everyone in the room.

"Y-You..." Tsunade said in horror, tears of sadness streaming down her face.

* * *

"We can't just leave them!" Chōchō exclaimed, "my mom's back there!"

"So is mine Chōchō," Shikadai snapped back, "but it wasn't up to us! Lady Tsunade ordered us to take Hanami and sneak out of there before anyone spotted us. The adults all agreed to buy us some time."

"But what about _them_?!" Ōkami gruffed. "They could get arrested because of us! Or worse, they could get killed!"

"The former of the two is the more likely possibility," Inojin stated. "Still, Lady Tsunade made it clear to us that getting Hanami to safety was our top priority. Going back now to help the adults, thus jeopardizing Hanami's safety, would be illogical."

"Illogical? My God! We're talking about our parent's and sensei's facing arrest or worse, and the pale-faced blonde robot here is talking about logic! You cold-blooded, ignorant, inhuman—"

Onii-chan!" Tsuki yelled to get her brother's attention. "Don't go off on Inojin please? He's just saying the truth."

"Still, a little bit more tact would have been nice," Bagu remarked.

Either way, we need to get Hanami somewhere safe," Shikadai stated. "Her wounds may be healed, but she's still weak and her chakra is still blocked."

"Precisely!" Burandon proclaimed. "And fear not my friends, the adults will most assuredly find a way out of their precarious situation and all will be made right soon enough!"

"I hope you're right Burandon," Shikadai said, "I hope you're right."

* * *

Taka, the original Taka, were watching the waters of the Hidden Whirlpool Village intently, waiting for any contact from the two children. So far they have not heard anything, and even Sasuke had to admit that he was starting to feel uneasy.

"I say we go down there and look for them," Karin insisted.

"I told you Karin," Sasuke stated, "we need to let the children handle this. They'll be fine!"

"Y'know, most parents aren't so willing to just send their kids down into a watery abyss in search of something that they don't even know what it looks like," Suigetsu stated.

"No, but to be perfectly frank, Sasuke isn't like most fathers," Jūgo retorted.

"I keep telling you guys," Randamu interrupted, "those kids aren't staying in touch because they're too busy getting in some nooky-nooky time, if you know what I mean!"

Karin groaned in complete irritation, "Hey! That's my daughter and godson you're talking about, pervert! Why would you even _think_ like that?!"

"Hey, if you can't stand the heat, pull out of the oven...HA! Get it?! _Pull out?!_ It's a play on words! HAHAHAHA! I crack myself up!"

Suigetsu put his head in his hands, "I hate you."

Randamu merely brushed it of as a complement, "Aw shucks, I hate you too!"

But then, Randamu looked out toward the water again and noticed something. "Um...hey guys, I know you all hate me and I love y'all for it, but it looks like two people in cloaks are running across the ocean right towards the island."

Sasuke, Karin, and the other two all immediately snapped to attention and looked over the ocean. Sure enough, Randamu was right.

Sasuke smirked, "Good, they made it."

Karin turned to her husband, "They're probably going to be very angry with you, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know, and I probably deserve whatever they have to say. But it's time for them to know the truth...and I have to own up for my own lies and mistakes."

Naruto and Sakura kept running closer and closer to the island. They must have been at it for hours straight if not days, but it was as if some all-motivating force were drawing them closer and closer to their destination...No, that that back, everyone knew _exactly_ what, or rather _who_, was driving to two parents to push themselves to their limits.

Finally, eventually, they both made it to the shore of the island. Sakura needed to catch her breath for just a moment, while Naruto, thanks to his legendary jinchūriki stamina, seemed ready to go right away.

The blonde-haired man turned to his wife, "You alright Sakura?"

"Yeah," the pink-haired woman said, "just give me a sec." She took a deep breath and recomposed herself. "Okay, let's go!"

The couple, hand-in-hand, walked towards the center of the island. Naruto noticed her husband's expressions as they observed the ruined buildings and monuments of the former Uzumaki clan across the landscape, evidence of what had been a former genocide.

"Naruto?" Sakura voiced her worry.

Naruto was silent for a moment as they walked, "When I met my mother in my own mindscape, she told me about what happened here...but to actually _see_ it, for the first time in my life...It's weird. I feel...at home here, like this is where I belong and like it's some place I should have come to long before now. I feel like I can get back in touch with a missing part of my life here...But at the same time...I HATE this place! All this destruction, all this death! It's like this whole island in haunted by the ghosts of my mother's clan!" Naruto turned to his wife, "I guess that must be hard for someone to understand."

Sakura took in everything Naruto just said and squeezed his hand tighter. "No, no Naruto, that's not hard to understand at all."

"Maybe one day we could return here, but for now, let's just do what we came here to do and leave," Naruto stated, to which Sakura nodded her head in agreement.

And so they kept walking, further and further into the island until they can to the cliff overlooking the sea.

There he was. Standing there all by himself. Sasuke Uchiha. Survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre, former missing-nin of Konohagakure and S-class criminal to the entire ninja world...and Naruto's best friend.

"Naruto...Sakura," the Uchiha greeted coldly.

"Sasuke," the Uzumaki and his wife greeted back.

There was a tense silence for what must have been at least ten seconds, but it felt far longer.

It was Sasuke who was the first to break the silence, "I see that the toad found you and delivered the message as I instructed."

It was actually Sakura who replied first, "Yeah, _Shinachiku's_ toad summon found us all right...Funny how you knew to look for us in the Land of Sound of all places."

"It was an educated guess of where to look first, given you're...situation right now."

"So you know about what's been happening in the village after all?" Naruto questioned suspiciously.

"I do. That's why I wanted both of you here."

"So you know who's responsible for it too, right?"

Sasuke answered with just a single word, "...Taka."

There was another tense silence, so quite that the wind could be heard as clearly as an owl's hooting during a bleak, starry evening.

Finally, after a tense moment of silence where neither of the three former teammates so much as blinked, Naruto finally spoke up once again.

"Before I start grilling you about that, and before I decide whether I should rip your heart out, Sakura and I have something else we need to ask you first."

"Fine. What is it—?"

Sasuke never got to finish his question as in a moment of speed he never would have expected from her, his former fangirl and female teammate ran up to him and delivered a chakra-enhanced punch to his face that instantly knocked the Uchiha down for the count and formed a small crater in the earth.

Sakura grabbed Sasuke by the cloak and yelled with a fury that he had never seen before, **"WHERE'S MY SON?!"**

Sasuke had not recovered from the punch quick enough to respond, so Sakura yelled again. "Answer me bastard! What have you done with Shinachiku?!"

She was forced to let go of Sasuke, however, as she felt some other force pulling her away by the throat, causing her to gag. She realized that she was being gripped by some sort of glowing golden chains, chains clearly forged out of chakra.

"Stay away from my husband Sakura!" said a female voice. Out of a hiding place that the chains were coming from emerged...

"KARIN?!" Naruto cried out in shock.

"Naruto, listen to me!" Karin pleaded, "We know you're both angry, but this _isn't_ what you're thinking it is!"

_"We?"_ Naruto asked in confusion.

Out of the same hiding spot emerged three more people: Suigetsu Hōzuki, Swordsman of the Mist, and Jūgo, a man from an unknown clan that was prone to fits of monstrous rage-both of whom Naruto recognized as members of Sasuke's former team—and there was also a third guy dressed in a red and black outfit and mask that neither he nor Sakura had ever seen before.

"O...M...G! It's Naruto Uzumaki! THE Naruto Uzumaki! Sir, I'm a HUGE fan! Seriously!" The stranger pulled out a large hardcover book for absolutely nowhere. "Any chance I can get you to autograph my limited hardcover collector's edition of your book? _PLEASE?!_"

Naruto was totally freaked out by this masked fanboy, whoever he was, but he ignored him to stay focused on what really mattered right now.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, "Tell _your_ wife to get her chakra chains off of _my_ wife right now! Or else!"

Sasuke, who was finally coming to after the blow Sakura had given him, stood back up and signaled for Karin to let go. Karin did, and the Adamantine Attacking Chains retracted, letting Sakura go as she quickly took in a gasp of breath and re-straightened herself. She walked back to her husband and got into a battle stance and Karin and the rest of Sasuke's team stood beside him.

"I probably deserved that punch," Sasuke admitted, "but now that the tension's out of the way, why don't we all get down to talking?"

"Fine." Sakura said flatly.

"Actually, before we do, one question: What was the 'or else' you were talking about dobe?"

Naruto smirked, "Well, lets just say that you're not the only one who decided to come here with reinforcements."

The Seventh Hokage snapped his fingers and almost instantaneously nine other Leaf ninja leaped to their leader's side, almost as if they had teleported. Sasuke recognized every one of them well: Sai, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Chōji Akimichi, Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Rock Lee and Tenten.

All of them were staring coldly into the one-armed, raven-haired Uchiha's eyes.

"Now, as my wife asked you before," Naruto said before his entire body became engulfed in chakra that resembled golden flames with intricate black symbols running across his form, **"Where the hell is my son?!"**

Randamu, who was looking at all of this, could only think of one thing to say as he turned his head to face an invisible camera: "Well...that escalated quickly, didn't it?"

* * *

Yes Randamu, yes, this did just escalate quickly!

I've been looking for a while to find a way to get Gaara into the story, and I figured now was as good a time as any. I'm sure a lot of you are curious to know who the mother of Gaara's daughter is...me too. I honestly haven't decided yet who the mother was, or even if she is still around. I'm open to some suggestions if anyone has any.

As for the daughter herself, I figured that if I was going to give Gaara a child, it would much cooler to give him a daughter than a son. I named her Sunako, which is a Japanese word for someone born of sand...What could be more fitting?

Once again Shinachiku and Sarada were faced with a puzzle to solve, and for this one I acknowledge that I stole the idea directly from an episode of "Batman: The Animated Series." Specifically, the episode in question is called "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?", which marked the first DCAU (DC Animated Universe) appearance of the Riddler. As usual, the Riddler spends the episode throwing plenty of riddles and puzzles at Batman and Robin for them to solve as they pursue the him before he can kill a greedy corporate shark that he wants revenge on. They ultimately have to run through a gigantic maze to capture the Riddler filled with yet more challenges, and the musical puzzle involving the three keys always stuck out to me as the most clever and well thought out. I also thought it was nice that, for once, Robin was the one to solve the challenge instead of Batman. Plus, I was in high school band for all for semesters so perhaps I just have a soft spot for it.

Sarada's conning Shinachiku into giving her a private singing concert...yeah, I am open to suggestions for songs. I thought it was a funny idea, plus a chance to expose a hidden perverted side to Shinachiku's character (the apple didn't fall too far from the tree I guess), and maybe Sarada as well.

Once again the kids are responsible for keeping Hanami safe, let's hope for the best for them! Incidentally, the arguments about passion vs logic we saw between Inojin and Ōkami were directly inspired by classic arguments between Spock and McCoy on "Star Trek: The Original Series."

By the way, rest in peace Leonard Nimoy, you will be deeply missed. Live Long and Prosper!

The identity of the mysterious man in the cloak...you know what, I'll let you guys figure that one out for yourselves.

Last but not least, _finally_, Naruto and Sakura have reunited with Sasuke again and, from the looks of it, a lot of explanations, misunderstandings, and perhaps some nasty fisticuffs may be underway.

Will Naruto and Sasuke (and Sakura) come to blows yet again? Will we see the Konoha 11 vs Taka? Will Shinachiku and Sarada find the Chakra Gem in time to stop their parents from killing each other? And most important of all...Will Randamu get Naruto to autograph his book! You'll just have to come back next time to find out!

Well, until then, see ya!


	20. Chapter 20--Love and Rage

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi is back once again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I am still floored at the amount of support and loyalty all of you have shown this story, and I hope to keep it going and eventually bring it to a satisfying conclusion in the future.

Three things I want to say before we get into this week's chapter: First, since the publication of Chapter 19, I have decided to go back into all of the previous chapter and change the village's name from the Land of Eddies to the Land of Whirlpools. This is in response to a rather rude review of Chapter 19 by SkyRage. I hope everyone doesn't mind.

Second, I want to warn you all upfront that there is some heavy drama and a lot of emotion in this chapter, and I am worried that two of our main characters may seem very out of character here, but this is all in response to what they have been through already in this story, on top of some drama that someone close to them has put them through in the past.

Lastly, I have an announcement to make. In honor of April 3rd, the so-called "Day that Naruto fell in love with Sakura," I am finally going to begin work on a new fanfic chronicling how they came together. I don't know what shape it will take yet, or how long it will be, or even what the title will be, but keep your eyes on my channel for something in the future.

Also, once again try to keep a eye open for any references to other works.

Well, I guess that's everything, so with all of that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 20: Love and Rage**

"Where is Shinachiku, Sasuke?!" demanded Naruto, now in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, looking like his whole body was engulfed in golden flames.

"He's down there," Sasuke pointed over to the ocean, "underneath the sea searching for the Chakra Gem."

_"WHAT?!"_ Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs.

"We concluded that that was where the gem was located. Don't worry, he didn't go down there alone."

"Oh really?" Naruto scowled, "who's with him?"

"Our daughter," Karin answered for Sasuke.

_"What?!"_ Sakura yelled again, this time along with Naruto.

"You sent your own daughter to a watery grave just for some damn glowing stone?!" Kiba yelled in fury.

"Her blood was just as necessary to unseal it as much as Shinachiku's was," Sasuke said. "And what business is it of yours anyway Kiba? Why are any of you here?"

"Don't talk to my husband that way!" Hinata said sternly. "We're all here because we're loyal to our friends."

"Something we're not sure _you_ are," Shikamaru added rudely.

"Excuse me?"

"Sasuke, I've been suspicious of you ever since that assassin attacked at Naruto and Sakura's wedding. I knew you were hiding something and when you came back with this damn mission and wanted to take Shinachiku with you. And now we find out that _Taka_ has infiltrated the village, you've apparently lied about you and your wife breaking up, and you've sent your own _daughter_ underwater for this stupid gem! You've got some things to explain!"

"There's not much I can say that Shikamaru hasn't said just now," Shino stated.

"I can't believe I ever had a thing for you," Ino said with a surprising amount of venom in her voice.

"Sasuke, we all came here for answers. Naruto and Sakura came here for their son first and foremost," Sai said. "But make no mistake, we are all willing to do what is necessary to save the world from this Taka conspiracy."

Sasuke looked at Naruto with piqued curiosity. "Really? Well, then you've changed Naruto. When we were younger you were obsessed with bringing me back home, no matter how many people told you I was beyond hope."

Naruto didn't say anything for a few seconds, only stared at the one-armed Uchiha not blinking. Then he finally spoke, "Sasuke, I did what I did back then because you're my friend, my brother. I respected you, I wanted to _be_ like you. You, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, you guys were the only family I had. I cherished my bonds and would do anything to maintain them..." he turned to his wife, "even if it meant maybe sacrificing my own happiness."

Sakura looked down in regret of her old life...but got over it quick as she scowled at Sasuke.

"But the difference Sasuke," Naruto continued, "is that I'm a father now, and if I am forced to make a choice between my son and my best friend, then I choose my son."

"I understand that," Sasuke stated, "and I would do anything for my daughter—"

"Like send Sarada down to a watery grave!" Ino yelled.

"I already explained that!"

"Her point still stands!" Chōji added.

"Indeed," Lee added. "Your actions and desire to keep secrets from your closest friends has cast a profoundly _un_youthful aura around you Sasuke!"

Sasuke groaned, "Lee, do us all a favor and shut your mouth for once! Nobody wants to hear your damned speeches about youth anymore!"

"You're not getting it Sasuke!" Tenten retorted, "You're in no position to be making demands right now!"

"Sasuke!" Sakura interrupted, "I just have one more question: Did you know that Taka had infiltrated the village when you came to us about taking our son?"

Sasuke said nothing for several seconds. While he had no visible expression on his face, they could clearly tell that he was struggling with getting his answer out. Until, finally, he gave his one word answer, "Yes."

Naruto's golden chakra intensified and Sakura released her seal, allowing lines glowing with violet chakra to appear on her face.

"You guys," Sasuke said in what seemed like desperation, "this is not what you're thinking, I swear! I brought you both here so I could explain the truth to both of you, so please, just listen to me!"

"We listened to you last time Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, "And because of that our son _and_ your daughter are both on the ocean floor right now, our daughter is missing, a shadow sect of lunatics have taken over all five of the great shinobi villages beneath our notice, and Sakura and I are wanted criminals!"

"No Sasuke!" Sakura added, "Naruto and I came here to give you the chance to explain yourself, but after everything you just admitted, I think the time for talking is done!"

"You guys," Karin interjected, "you're both being consumed by blind rage right now! You both need to calm down and just let us explain the truth!"

"Yeah, jeez you two!" Suigetsu added, "Way to escalate things way too quickly! And I thought that all of you were supposed to be friends here!"

"True," Jūgo noted, "but after everything they've been through and with their son dead for all they know, it's understandable why they're both unstable right now."

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Randamu chanted in excitement. He only stopped to turn to some invisible audience, as if legions of people were scowling at him, "What, I can't be the only person in out there who wants to see this!"

* * *

Shinachiku and Sarada continued walking down the tunnel, neither having any idea what else they could expect, or how many of these challenges they were going to have to pass just to get to the Chakra Gem.

But suddenly, Shinachiku stopped dead in his tracks.

"Shina, what's wrong?" Sarada asked.

Something was severely preoccupying the boy's mind. He looked as if he was having some vision of something terrible.

"I don't know why..." Shinachiku finally said, "...but I've got this feeling that something is seriously wrong up there."

"Up where?" Sarada asked in confusion.

"Up above the surface, with your parents and the others...and I think somebody else has joined them."

"Who?"

"...I think...I think it's my mom and dad."

"What?! How do you know that?"

"I don't know...I've just got this weird feeling, that's all. I can't explain it."

Sarada could only stare at the blonde-haired boy for a few moments before she remembered something, "Maybe now's a good time to radio my dad."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Sarada pulled down her collar to expose a microphone necklace she wore around her neck. "My dad gave me this so we could stay in contact while we were down here."

"Why didn't you tell me about that before?"

"I thought you already knew."

"...No, your dad must have forgotten to fill me in on that part." Shinachiku didn't hide the annoyance in his voice as he said that.

Sarada tried fiddling with the mic, "Dad? Dad do you copy? It's Sarada, come in! Come in!"

There was nothing but static on the other line.

"I guess we're so deep underwater that it's distorting the reception," Shinachiku surmised.

Sarada merely brushed it off. "Whatever, I guess we're both on our own now. Lets just keep moving."

The children continued walking, and walking, and walking. The floor was starting to slant a bit, gradually forming an increasingly steeper slope. the slope kept getting steeper and steeper, until suddenly it got so steep that they both started sliding uncontrollably, it happening so suddenly that neither of them were prepared to use their chakra to steady their support to avoid it.

The kids kept sliding and falling, unable to stop themselves, until finally they both came to the end of the tunnel...and Shinachiku nearly fell over into a seemingly endless abyss.

"Whoa!" Sarada shouted as she instinctively grabbed the boy's coat and pulled him back, only steadying herself by grabbing an open crevice in the wall.

Shinachiku stared at the underground chasm, and the fate that had very nearly claimed him.

"Thank you," he said to the raven-haired girl.

"Don't mention it!" Sarada responded. "Besides, you still own me a private concert at the end of this!"

He pulled the boy back up with all of her strength, fearing that she may dislocate her own shoulder in doing so, and in fact she nearly did.

When Shinachiku was back up again, he pumped chakra into his feet to allow himself to stand upright, just as Sarada was now dong, but he also noticed the girl grabbing her own shoulder.

"Oh God! I'm sorry! I didn't want you hurting yourself just for me!"

"It's alright Shina! I can take it!"

Shinachiku wasn't convinced. "Move your hand."

"What?"

"Trust me, move your hand."

Sarada decided to trust the boy and moved her arm from her aching shoulder. Shinachiku's own hands started glowing with green chakra and he began channeling it into the girl's shoulder.

"How did—"

"I learned from my mom, the best healer there is! Of course I'm no where close to her level, but I think I'm more than capable of helping you with this."

Within moments, the girl's shoulder was restored to perfect working order. After moving her arm around several times, she looked to the boy and with an uncharacteristically sincere smile for anyone from her clan, she said to the boy, "Thank you."

Shinachiku merely said, "Don't mention it...and no, you haven't earned that private concert yet."

the two children looked over the ledge to the crevice below. There was an opening on the other side, several yards down.

"Looks like that opening is our only way out of here," Sarada pointed out.

"That's pretty far," Shinachiku said. "We could walk straight down the ledge with our chakra, but that leaves the problem of getting to the other side. It's too far to just leap to the opposite wall."

"Yeah, you've got a point."

As they weighed their options, some of the rocky ledge they were standing on broke off and fell into the abyss. but what Sarada saw next stunned her. It looked like the rocks landed on something solid and bounced off something that wasn't even there.

'What the hell?' Sarada thought to herself.

She grabbed another rock while Shinachiku wasn't looking and tossed it down, aiming for the exact same spot. The same thing happened, but this time the boy took notice somewhat.

"What was that?" Shinachiku asked, "I thought I heard rocks landing on something?"

"Give me your hand!" Sarada commanded.

"What? Why?" the boy asked confused.

"Do you trust me?"

"What?"

"Do you trust me?"

Shinachiku actually blushed slightly at her question before he smiled, "Absolutely."

He gave her his hand...right before she leaped off the ledge with him in tow.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Shinachiku screamed in panic, expecting his immanent death.

What he got instead was rough pain as both he and Sarada fell flat on a solid surface...a surface that wasn't there! Right across from them was the opening to where the rest of the tunnel lay.

The children groaned in pain as they got their bearings back. "OWWW! What the hell was that?!" Shinachiku demanded.

"Call it a leap of faith," Sarada quipped while groaning herself. "I saw rocks bouncing off something that wasn't there, so I suspected that there was an invisible bridge down here."

"You _suspected_ an invisible bridge?! What if you'd been wrong?! We both could have been killed?!"

"Well, then we'd just have to figure something out on the way down...and besides, that way you would have gotten out of our deal."

"Since when do Uchiha's make such reckless decisions?" Shinachiku asked while standing up, again, on a bridge he could not even see.

"We don't," she answered, "I only did it this time because I saw it work with my own eyes."

"Pretty sharp eyes...keep it up and I'm certain you'll develop the Sharingan in no time."

Sarada was taken aback as she stood up herself, "You really think so?"

"I know so, believe it!"

Once again, the girl couldn't help a minor blush that appeared on her face.

Shinachiku noted their current situation as he looked down, "Whoa! Umm...we should probably start moving to the other side before anything bad happens."

"Huh?...Oh yeah!"

With that, both kids dashed at their top speed to the other side and made it through the opening, where somewhere the Chakra Gem still lay waiting for them.

* * *

"Naruto, please" Sasuke begged, "let's not do this."

"No, _lets_!" Naruto screamed. "I trusted you! I believed in you! I stuck my neck out for you when nobody else would! And _this_ is how you thank me! By betraying my trust and our village, and worst of all _destroying_ my family! I'd thought that you'd changed, that you were a different person now! But I guess I was wrong."

At this Sasuke actually scowled in irritation. "You know what, I was wrong before, I _have_ changed a lot since then, but clearly you _haven't_ Naruto! You're still the same irrational, reckless, emotion-driven idiot that you were when we were kids! Always thinking with your heart and your mouth and never with your head...No wonder Sakura used to prefer me instead of you."

That did it. For both of them. Sasuke had taken one gigantic step too far!

"How **dare** you!" Sakura yelled. "How **dare** you bring that into this! I was young and foolish! I was distracted by good looks and cool attitudes back then! I was too blind to see that beneath all of that was just this empty shell of human being who values the power that some magic gem can get him over those he **claims** to love!"

"Watch it bitch!" Karin yelled. "Talk like that to my husband again and I'll gut you!"

"Stay out of this Karin!" Naruto shouted to his very distant cousin. "You, Suigetsu, Jūgo...whoever the guy in red is—"

"Oh, my name's Randamu—"

"_Whatever!_ All of you stay out of this! This is between me, Sakura and Sasuke!"

"Wrong Naruto!" Karin yelled, "you may be the only family I've got left, but if you've got a problem with Sasuke then you've got a problem with **me!**"

"Fine! But if anybody else makes a move, my team is here to get in your way! GOT IT!"

The rest of the Konoha 11 each got into their battle stances, some even getting their jutsu's ready for an eminent attack.

The other three members of Taka could not say anything in retaliation...frankly, they were all pretty scared of Naruto is such an angry state.

Sasuke sighed and activated his most powerful dōjutsu, the Rinnegan, while the Mangekyō Sharingan remained within his other eye. "Okay, fine! I guess this is how it's going to be!"

The three former teammates each bit down on their thumbs, drawing blood. They each then slammed their palms down on the ground.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

In three large puffs of smoke, three gigantic creatures emerged, each with their summoner standing atop their heads. Beneath Naruto was a gigantic red toad, a pipe in his mouth and a tantō sword at his waist. Beneath Sasuke was a gigantic blue snake. Beneath Sakura was a gigantic blue and white slug.

"Well, it's been a long time Naruto," Gamakichi said to the one that summoned him.

"Too long old friend," Naruto replied. "But this reunion is a bit short-lived. Sasuke has—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, a toad that your son had summoned told us all about it. So where is the kid anyhow?"

"Thanks to Sasuke, he _and_ Sasuke's own daughter are at the bottom of the ocean right now."

Gamakichi suddenly got mad as he glared at the snake master before him. "Come again?"

"Lady Sakura," Katsuyu asked in worry, "is that really true?"

Sakura, after swallowing her own emotions, replied, "Yes Lady Katsuyu, it is true."

"Lord Sasuke," Aoda asked his master, "have you truly murdered their son and your own daughter?"

"Of course not," Sasuke answered, "but these two are too blinded by rage to let me explain the situation, so it looks like its four against two this time."

Gamakichi smirked as he reached for his weapon, "Y'know, I always did want a snakeskin wallet."

Aoda got a stern, emotionless expression, "Frogs legs do sound really appetizing right now."

"Oh Lady Sakura," Katsuyu begged, "is there no way to end this peacefully?"

"I'm sorry Lady Katsuyu," Sakura replied coldly, "but the time for talking is already done."

"Naruto...Sakura..." Sasuke spoke one more time, "I know you've both been through a lot, and I know that you must both be furious with me because of how this looks, especially after all the grief I caused you both when we were younger. But I _swear_ to you that I had no intention of ever harming your son, and _especially_ not my own daughter! So I'm going to ask you again...one last time...let's calm down and discuss this like adults."

Neither Naruto nor Sakura did or said anything for several seconds, just stared coldly into the Uchiha's eyes. Until, finally, Naruto spoke.

"Show him to me."

"Excuse me?"

"Show me my son! If you can give me proof right here and now that Shinachiku and Sarada are alive, **then** we'll talk!"

Sasuke answered back, "Look, when I sent Shinachiku and Sarada down there, I gave Sarada a microphone so she and I could stay in contact, in case anything went wrong down there."

Sakura scowled, "Really? And has she contacted you once since then?"

"...No." He then reached for the microphone that he wore around his neck. "Sarada...Sarada this is your father. Please come in! Repeat! Come in! Sarada _please_...Come in!"

There was nothing but static on the other line. Sasuke looked like the blood had drained from his face...He'd done it...His daughter and godson were both dead, their corpses resting at the bottom of the sea.

"_Well?!_" Sakura snapped.

"I...I did it...I killed them..." Sasuke said totally lost.

Everyone gasped. Naruto, Sakura, their friends, Sasuke's team, even the three summons. All of them were horrified at what the raven-haired man had just confessed.

"You...You **SON OF A BITCH!**" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, his Kurama-like features accentuating even while in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, getting her husband's attention as the violet lines in her face started glowing. "Save a piece of him for me!"

"Lord Sasuke," Aoda called out, "Perhaps now would be a wise time to summon your Susanoo to come to your defense?"

"...No. Stand down Aoda," the Uchiha said lost. "Scum like me doesn't deserve a fighting chance."

With that, the Uchiha deactivated both his Rinnegan and his Mangekyō Sharingan.

"SASUKE!" Karin shouted, "What are you doing!"

Sasuke turned to look at his wife, "I'm getting what I deserve. What I've deserved for a long time. Karin...I love you."

Karin was brought to tears as she heard Naruto and Sakura leaping off of their summons calling out two of their most powerful techniques.

"WIND RELEASE: REPEATED RASENSHURIKEN!"

"CHERRY BLOSSOM IMPACT!"

**"SASUKE!"**

Sasuke listened to his wife's outcry of grief as he merely closed his eyes, waiting for the end to come at the hands of his closest friends...

* * *

The two travelers continued their journey down the tunnel until they arrived at yet another room. This time they came to a small room, rather blank and unassuming and with absolutely nothing there, except for a short staircase carved into the far wall leading up to some sort of alter...as well as another human being.

The man looked old, like he was in his sixties at least, and he had long, unkempt red hair and was dressed in raggedly old warrior's clothes, somewhat similar to the armor worn by the samurai from the Land of Iron, only less bulky and without any helmet. He carried a samurai sword at his side.

Both of the children looked at each other in a mix of shock and confusion. Neither of them could believe that there was actually someone else down here, and they both wondered instantly how long this old man must have been here.

"Umm...excuse me sir?" Shinachiku asked as he approached cautiously.

The old warrior reacted on instinct to the intruder's voice. He grasped his weapon and swung it at his enemy...

...However, due to his age, the old man swung very slowly and the boy was able to dodge the attack with little effort. The old man fell down to the ground in a huff as Sarada ran to help him.

"Here, let me help you," she said.

"Good graces m'lady," the old man replied, "it is good to see such kindness even in my moment of defeat."

"Umm...you're welcome."

The old man turned to the boy now looking down upon him in confusion. "M'lad, you have defeated me in mortal combat. For that you have passed the fourth trial of the Chakra Gem."

"Trial?" Shinachiku asked confused. "So we were right, all of those other traps—the stature, the keys, the leap of faith—all of them were tests to see if we were worthy of the gem?"

"Correct," the old man confirmed. "The trials were meant to test your intellect as well as your fortitude. The statue was a test of your attentiveness, the keys your perception, the chasm—as your said—your faith, and myself, a test of your might."

"I see..." the boy contemplated. "Umm...who are you?"

"I am a loyal warrior of the Uzumaki clan," the old man said, "one who has taken an oath to stand guard over the Chakra Gem that rests here, to test the fortitude of any who should one day come to claim it. And to make sure that none but those with Uzumaki-clad blood may collect it."

"You've been here ever since the gem was buried here?" Sarada asked, to which the old man nodded. "But that was generations ago?"

"Long time to wait," the old man remarked.

"No offense," Shinachiku interrupted, "but how have you stayed alive so long, especially down here all by yourself?"

"Each of the seven Chakra Gems possesses a different, amazing power. I was blessed by one of them with the gift—no, the curse—of everlasting life."

The children's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"So the gem that you're guarding makes one immortal?!" Sarada exclaimed.

"Nay," the old man answered. "I was given this burden by one of the other gems, a trusted sharing of power by allies of the past before the seven were all buried across the world. The gem I was given the task of guarding possess a far more...destructive power."

The kids took a moment to take all of this in before the old man spoke again. "I have waited a long time for two worthy souls of Uzumaki blood to the come forth and claim the gem for their own. Though I have to confess, I had expected them to be much...older...and of far more noble dress for a ninja."

The kids frowned a bit before Sarada spoke, "Let's just say that a lot has changed since you been down here."

"Of that I have no doubt m'lady," the old man answered. "Truly you children must be warriors of the highest order to have made it this far."

Shinachiku and Sarada frowned again, this time Shinachiku spoke, "Our parents are the great warriors, especially our fathers. Especially _my_ father. I'm nothing compared to him."

"Do not doubt yourself young man. Some day your pears will look upon you and say you will be just like your father, the bravest and strongest shinobi in the world. And then one day they will all look again and say, 'No—"

"He is greater than his father." Shinachiku finished the old man's words with a renewed pride in his voice. The old man actually smiled warmly at this before turning to the girl.

"M'lady, the Uzumaki bloodline flows strong in your companion and I do indeed sense Uzumaki blood within you, but I also sense, more prominently, the blood of Indra's line, of Madara's clan. Are you of the Uchiha?"

"Yes, I am," Sarada answered.

"I see. So, the lines of Asura and Indra Ōtsutsuki have come together at last."

Both children blushed bright red. "Wait, what do you mean by _come together_?!" Shinachiku asked in a panic.

The old man realized he had maybe stepped out of line, "Oh please forgive me m'lad, I meant no offense."

The two children calmed down as Sarada spoke. "So...what happens now? Do we just take to gem?"

"Alas, 'tis not to be so," the old man said. "Both of you must offer up your blood to the alter to release the Chakra Gem, but first you must prove yourselves worthy be passing one final trial."

"And what trial is that?" Shinachiku asked.

"You must answer a riddle, a riddle that I shall recite to you myself. Those who cannot answer wisely and correctly are not worthy of accepting the gem. Do you accept this trial?"

The children exchanged glances at each other before turning back to the old man and both answered as one, "We accept."

"So be it." The old man sat up as the kids sat down in front of him, waiting for whatever riddle the old man had to offer them, and praying internally that it wasn't anything too difficult.

Finally the old man spoke: "This thing conquers all other things. It takes many forms, many shapes, many levels, but always it is found between two people, or often times families and friends. Once forged it can never truly be broken. It can be forged instantly or over time, and is as mysterious as it is wonderful. When kept in control this thing will free you, yet when out of control it will condemn you...Can you guess the answer?"

The children said nothing for several seconds, both of them deep in thought, until finally Shinachiku's head sprung up and he leaned over to whisper something in Sarada's ear. She seemed confused by what the boy was telling her at first, until he elaborated. When he did that, Sarada's face brightened up, both in understanding and in joy. The each turned back to the old man.

"We know the answer sir," Sarada told him.

"And what is your answer?" he asked.

The kids looked to each other smiling and then back to the old man, answering as one, "Love."

"And why do you believe that?" the old man asked. "Why do you believe that a base emotion as insipid as love is the answer?"

"Love conquers all things," Shinachiku answered. "I've seen it every day of my life between my parents. They've been through so much, good and bad, and they always did it together. They shared a bond of love without even realizing it, before both of them were ever _in_ love. My mother believed she hated my father when they first met, blinded by feelings of love for Sarada's dad. But over time their bond deepened into a true friendship, and ultimately into something more, something she never saw coming. And once their love was confirmed it would never be broken. More than that, you say that it takes many forms and shapes, so I think about my love for my sister, for my friends, for—"

Shinachiku stopped himself. He merely glanced at Sarada and then back, as did she.

Sarada decided to finish speaking for him, "I have seen it in my family too. My mother was infatuated with my father and for years he did not return her feelings...until one day, before he ever saw it coming, he found himself in her arms and he was happy. My parents love each other, and despite their faults, they both love me, just like Shinachiku's parents love him and Hanami, and like how—"

She could not finish her sentence either.

"I see," the old man said. "You both have answered..." The children made no motion as they each braced for the worst, "...wisely."

They both let out a breath they did not realize they were holding as the old man continued, "Indeed, love does conquer all. It takes many forms and shapes, and it can be instant or form over time. And once such a bond is forged it can never truly be broken. Congratulations young warriors, you have passed the final trial."

Some unknown force had come over the two children as they leaped up in joy, shouting "Yay!" to the heavens before embracing each other in a hug...which they quickly broke in embarrassment.

"A promised, the Charka Gem is yours...but be warned, even those who have the purest of hearts may find themselves corrupted by the gem's influence if they are not careful. Such is the price of such power."

The children looked over to the staircase leading to the alter and, not realizing that they had taken each other's hands, walked up the stairs to find a small chest that was intricately decorated in gold, silver and ruby. On the stone table that the chest was sitting on were indentations in the shape of a pair of hands, one for the left the other for the right.

Both Shinachiku and Sarada knew what they needed to do next. They each pulled out a kunai from their weapons pouches and, standing next to each other, each put their kunai in their hand and grasped their fingers around it. Shinachiku held his in his right hand, while Sarada held hers in her left hand.

Biting their lips and closing their eyes, they both slashed their palms quickly.

"OW!" Both of them yelled as they screamed in their own self-inflicted pain. But they each got the better of themselves and placed their cut hands in their rightful place at the alter.

What happened next was remarkable. The chest opened up and out of it came a bright, almost angelic red light. It was so intense that they each had to cover their eyes before getting used to the intensity of it.

An then they saw it. Resting there in the chest, the source of the red glow. A small red gem that seemed so small yet they could both feel housed incredible power the likes of which they hadn't ever seen before.

Shinachiku dared to reach out to grab it, but Sarada stopped him. Sharing eye contact for what felt like an eternity, they both enclosed their hands around the gem.

The room began to shake. The tunnel was collapsing around them. If the walls did not cave them in and bury them alive then the water outside would drown them instantly. They both needed to get out of there. **Now!**

And yet neither of them could move. It was like they were both held still by some invisible force which they could not control.

With what power they had, they turned to the old man, who had watched the whole scene. He had nothing to say, save for raising his had and declaring, "God speed young warriors! My duty is done!"

As if on cue, a bright red energy coursed out of the gem and through both of their bodies as they still held it. The energy passed through them until, after briefly making their eyes glow red with power, it forced both of their heads up into the sky as the energy shot out of their mouths in a immense display of power, the ceiling above them shattering as a result.

Neither of them knew what was going on, and neither had any clue how they would get out of this...but at least they were in this together, that by itself made it a lot better...

* * *

Naruto and Sakura were poised to deliver their attacks, and Sasuke was poised to receive them for all he had done...

But the blows never came. For at that moment, with a thundering sound unlike any they had heard before, a gigantic beam of red energy burst out of the water.

Everyone on the island—the former Team 7, their friends, Sasuke's team, even the three summons—all of them were speechless at what they were witnessing. The power that the beam gave off was nightmarish, on a level they had not seen since their battle with Kaguya and the Ten-Tails so many years ago.

"Ohhhh...pretty!" Randamu commented. Go figure he'd be the _only_ person on the island who would be able to say anything about what was happening.

For the three former friends however, plus the Uchiha's wife, the vicious, bloodthirsty feud they shared just seconds ago was instantly forgotten because the sight before them now was truly horrific. Even though none of them had ever seen it for themselves, they _knew_ what was causing this, and they _knew_ what it surely meant!

**"SHINACHIKU!"** Naruto and Sakura screamed at the top of their lungs and in absolute terror.

**"SARADA!"** Sasuke and Karin screamed in like fashion.

And there it was...it that instant, as the beam of red energy shot into the air, they all feared the worst. Their children were both dead...

What they did not know was that many yards away two masked shinobi garbed totally in black also saw the powerful beam of energy. They stopped long enough to observe the phenomenon, then looked to each other and nodded.

It was time to secure the Chakra Gem for Taka...once their first mission had been carried out and Naruto Uzumaki, his wife, and all of their allies were eliminated.

* * *

Holy S***! Now that's a cliffhanger! Please don't hate me! I promise you all that this is not the end and that more chapters are coming!

I was worried throughout my writing of this that I was writing Naruto and Sakura way out of character with how furious, pretty much bloodthirsty they were at Sasuke. But the idea is that they have both been through so much and lost so much by now; they know that Taka has infiltrated the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and they really didn't know for sure what Sasuke's real role in all of this was. So when Sasuke admitted that both their son and goddaughter were at the bottom of the ocean, that was just the straw that broke their backs. Add to that Sasuke's terror that he may, for all he knew, had indeed sent the kids to their deaths, and the outcome writes itself.

I wanted to do a substantial role reversal with this chapter. During the series I saw that Naruto and Sakura were portrayed as compassionate voices of reason in contrast to Sasuke, who kept slipping further and further into evil up until the Fourth Shinobi World War, and even then there was a heal-face turn leading to Naruto and Sasuke's final battle. Now, decades later and with all of them now parents, I wanted to try, just for this one moment, to cast the characters in the opposite light. I really hope I did not kill the story or make anyone unlikable by doing this, because that is the _last_ thing I wanted!

The challenges that Shinachiku and Sarada faced this time—the "leap of faith" and the old warrior—were inspired by the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", in which Indy has to make a similar leap of faith to make it to the Holy Grail, and then all of the stuff with the old man was directly inspired by the scenes between Indy and the immortal knight.

The riddle, however, was my own idea, although some of the structure of it was partially influenced by Gollum's riddle about time in "The Hobbit." I wanted the riddle to be about something that was a core theme of this story, and I figured what theme would my NaruSaku audience appreciate more than love.

In speaking of which, the title "Love and Rage" is an obvious contrast between the two generations seen in this chapter. Part of my reason for portraying Naruto and Sakura so angry here was because I wanted to create a contrast between how well Shinachiku and Sarada were working together for this end goal, while their parents were above the surface ready to kill each other.

A lot of the back and forth arguing between Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke and Karin was also inspired by an episode of "The Legend of Korra" titled "Old Wounds," where we see a very tense and personal argument (that ultimately leads to a full-blown fight) between half-sisters Lin and Suyin Beifong, Toph's daughters in case you didn't know.

Shinachiku learning medical ninjutsu from Sakura was my acknowledgement of the original fan's conceit for the character, that his goal was to become the best medical ninja in the village like his mother. In my story I feel he gravitates more towards his father, but I had no problem with him learning a few things from Sakura, it would only make sense.

Sarada's "Do you trust me?" moment was my tribute to "Aladdin." I'm sure we all remember the classic scene where Aladdin says that to Jasmine before they go riding off on the magic carpet...By the way, just like I gave my respects to Leonard Nimoy last time, Rest in peace Robin Williams, you will be deeply missed.

Naruto's "No, _lets!_" line was inspired by, of all things, the first Fantastic Four movie...well, the first was that was released, not counting the Roger Corman version. Sue Storm says that in response to Doom's request to avoid fighting, which, of course, she refuses before hitting him with her force field.

Gamakichi's quip about wanting a snake skin wallet was directly lifted from an identical quip his father, Gamabunta, made at Manda back in the Search for Tsunade arc. Seeing the three summons about to attack each other, instead of allied like during the war, was meant as a direct mirror of that chapter/issue of the series.

I think that's all of got for this time. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I hope I've still got you all hooked to come back next time. So, until next time, see ya!


	21. Chapter 21--Reunited

Hey there everybody, thesaiyanjedi's back once again for the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I hope all of you are doing well, and in case any of you missed it, I encourage you to please check out the five-part fic I did for NaruSaku Day, "Heaven and Earth Together At Last." It was a bit rushed since I wanted to make sure the whole thing was finished on time for the big day, but I think it came out pretty well. I hope all of you enjoyed it, and in case you haven't read it, please do me a big favor and go check it out. Thank you!

Sorry if this chapter is a bit late, but I needed rest up a bit after rushing "Heaven and Earth" out in only three days. But that's okay because I'm back now, and I sure hope that all of you are still interested after the cliffhanger we had last time.

Well, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 21: Reunited**

The beam of red energy was still going. Its power incredible. The thunderous sound it gave off otherworldly. And yet for most of the people on the island where the ruins of Uzushiogakure lay, none of that was where their concern was. What was of concern to them were the fates of the poor children who were sent down below the sea to recover the thing that was undoubtedly causing this to happen.

For Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Karin, it was like staring at death itself. It was like some divine power had revealed itself to the four of them and told them, in the most spectacular and catastrophic way imaginable, that their children were now dead.

Sakura and Karin, for all of their strength and willpower both as kunoichi and as fully grown women, could not help but fall to their knees and stare at the crimson display of power, tears flowing uncontrollably from their eyes.

"Shinachiku..." Sakura said weakly.

"Sarada..." Karin likewise said.

Their husband's weren't fairing much better. Neither Naruto or Sasuke were crying, but they were both completely terrified. Naruto because he feared his son was dead, and Sasuke not only for the loss of his daughter, but because **he** was the miserable fool who sent both children down there in the first place.

Shikamaru, Sai, Chōji, Lee, Tenten, Shino, Kiba, all of them had their heads hung low, even Suigetsu and Jūgo did as well. Hinata and Ino were both sobbing just like the two mothers were, their were each the boy's "aunts" after all. Randamu, for once in his life, actually had enough restraint not to make a terrible joke...but that was also partially because he was somewhat distracted by the red energy beam.

The three summons—the frog, the snake and the slug—were at a loss at what to say, but all three of them did share their painful regret for their master's loss...

...That is, until Aoda noticed something in the distance.

"Lord Sasuke! Look!"

The Uchiha looked up in despair at what the giant serpent was calling attention to. What he saw stunned him.

"Hey Naruto! Look up!" Gamakichi demands in turn.

"Lady Sakura! Please look!" Katsuyu pleaded.

Both parent's followed their summons instructions and saw the same thing that Sasuke had. Naruto was stunned while Sakura started crying tears of joy.

Emerging out off the ocean with the beam of red light, seemingly floating in the air, were two familiar forms. The forms resembled two children and, despite being so far away from shore, the adults could make out that one of the figures had blonde hair and was clad in a familiar orange jacket and black shorts, while the other had dark black hair and was clad in a black vest and white shorts.

**"SHINACHIKU!"** Naruto and Sakura shouted out in joy.

**"SARADA!"** Sasuke and Karin likewise shouted.

The children, seeming to be trapped in some sort of trance as red power burst from their mouths and their hands clasped together as if they were holding something precious, were both alive!

However, no sooner had the parents realized this than the energy beam finally dissipated along with the power emerging from their mouths. The children seemingly passed out in exhaustion and fell to the waters below, their hands finally separating as Shinachiku's still remained grasping their prize.

Acting on instinct, both Naruto and Sasuke made a mad dash to the sea and with their above average ninja speed were able to catch each of their children before they hit the ocean surface.

Naruto looked at his son, asleep in his arms, and felt the happiest he had been in days.

"Shina?" Naruto asked, shaking him only softly. "Son? Its me, dad."

"Sarada?" Sasuke asked only a few feet away from them, lightly shaking his own daughter asleep in his arms. "Sweetie? Can you hear me?"

Neither of the children were able to give any response, but they each had a pulse, so there was no need to fear the worse...there had been far too much fear and heartbreak as it is.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. It was a look that conveyed several different emotions all at once—relief, happiness, regret, apology, forgiveness, and understanding—and all without saying a single word to one another.

With merely a nod to each other they both dashed at full speed back to the island. As soon as they got there they went straight to their wives. Sakura practically yanked the unconscious boy out of her husband's arms and squeezed him against her chest like she'd never let him go, her tears of joy never stopping. Karin was no different. For the moment they were both so relieved to have their children alive and in their arms that nothing else mattered.

Naruto smiled at seeing mother and son reunited, but then he noticed Shinachiku's hand was still grasping something. And there was a very faint red glow that emitted from in between the boy's fingers.

'Is that...?' Naruto asked in awe before brushing it off to focus on what was more important.

"Naruto?" The blonde-haired man turned his head to see his wife speaking to him, their son still in her arms. "Is he...?"

Naruto gave her a comforting smile. "It's okay Sakura. They're both just exhausted. Just let them rest for a while."

Sakura nodded her hear in understanding, checking Shinachiku's pulse just to be sure. She offered to check Sarada's too, but Karin signaled that she could do it herself.

After a quick scan of her son's body to check for any injuries, she laid the slumbering boy down on the grass to let him sleep, his head resting in her lap. Karin followed suit and sat down next to Sakura with Sarada's head in her lap.

Naruto walked over to his wife and placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, burying her head in his chest. Naruto just welcomed the hug sincerely, whispering soothing sounds into her ear.

Karin was looking at her little girl as she felt a presence approach her. She turned to see Sasuke standing there, not saying anything, but instead communicating through only his eyes. His message was simple but profound, "I'm sorry." Karin, after making her feelings clear with a smack to the back of his head, nevertheless hugged her husband anyway, letting out all of her relief that they still had their daughter alive and well with them.

The rest of the group there were all happy and relieved that both families were together again, but leave it to Randamu to ruin the moment.

"Aww! Isn't that cute?! And where am I without my camera?" Randamu asked in mock sympathy.

Everyone gave him an annoyed stair, including the parents. "Sorry."

But Naruto, despite his joy of being reunited with his son, nevertheless found his mind wandering to a matter just as important, once that he and Sakura were going to have to find the answer to, and **soon!**

'Hanami...sweetie...where are you?'

* * *

"I'm telling you that this is a bad idea!" Ōkami protested.

Shikadai had heard enough of this for one day. "If you've got a better one, I'm sure we'd all like to hear it! If not, then please stop complaining!"

Ōkami merely folded his arms in a huff, while his twin sister tried putting her hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"This isn't about our convenience Ōkami, this is about Hanami's," Bagu added.

"By the way, how are you feeling anyway?" Shikadai asked the pink-haired girl.

"A lot better now thanks to Lady Tsunade," she said, "but what about the grown ups?"

"They bought us all some time for us to get out of here, and right now we've got to get to a safe place until we can find some sort of plan."

"Shikadai is correct," Burandon agreed. "While the adult's act of self-sacrifice is most unfortunate, it is nevertheless within our best interests to find Hanami a new place of refuge until a new plan can be enacted."

"Yeah," Chōchō began, "but is it really wise for us to just sneak her out of the village on our own. We'll all be branded as deserters just like her parents."

"It can't be helped," Shikadai stated. "So long as Hanami is here, her life is in grave danger, all of our lives are. Uragi and the Anbu know the village too well and we cannot risk any more chances of being discovered again. Our best chance is to take refuge in another village."

The kids all looked at each other with skepticism before turning back to the Nara.

"But where would we go?" asked Tsuki.

"I suggest...Sunagakure."

All of them were quite surprised to hear that.

"Umm...Shikadai," Chōchō questioned. "Isn't that a bit, err..._far_ for us to travel?"

"Yeah," Ōkami added, "the trek there would be tough enough, but we'd have to run all the way through the _desert_, and there's not even any guarantee that we'd be welcomed there."

"I think its safe to assume we would, " Inojin countered. "After all, the Kazekage is Shikadai's uncle and he and Hanami's father just so happen to be close friends."

"Exactly," Shikadai stated. "My Uncle's Gaara and Kankurō may be a bit lame at times, but they'd be more than willing to let us take shelter there for the time being."

Bagu shook his head in thought, "Gaara's not going to be happy when he hears about what happened to Hanami."

A sense of fear rose up Shikadai's spine, "No...no he's not."

Hanami could only stand there and listen to her friends as she took all of this in. She and her brother had met the Kazekage before and she knew that he was a good man and was friends with her dad. He'd even been a guest in their house several times. But there was always something..._creepy_ about the Kazekage that she could never quite get passed, even though he never treated her with anything but kindness.

"Well then, I guess we should all get going to the village gate then," Tsuki surmised.

"Why risk going that way when you can hitch a ride?"

All of the children reacted in alarm. That voice did not come from any of them, but from a shadowy section of the area they were hiding in. All of them instantly got into their fighting stances, even Hanami, as the mysterious figure stepped out of the shadows...

...And then Shikadai and Hanami both relaxed upon realizing who it was.

"Sunako?"

"Hello Shikadai," the person said.

She was a very young girl, just barely younger than Shikadai was, with long but somewhat unkempt and dirty auburn hair, fair skin, pale blue-green eyes surrounded by think black rings. She was garbed in a light sandy brown T-shirt with a long sleeved red shirt underneath, black pants, black sandals, and strapped to her hip was a small gourd filled with sand. Her face had a very serious expression, almost cold, but that was just her usual persona coming through, she was s good person at the end of the day.

The strange girl approached them, startling the rest of the kids except for the two that recognized her. Shikadai stepped up to her and looked liked he was going to give her a hug, but neither of them looked comfortable with it so they settled for a handshake instead.

"Shikadai, who is this girl?" Chōchō asked in confusion.

"Guys, this is Sunako, she's my cousin."

"_T-This_ chick is the Kazekage's daughter?!" Ōkami asked in shock.

"Indeed. What of it?" the girl asked.

"My onii-chan is just surprised is all," Tsuki responded. "We heard no announcement that Lord Kazekage and his daughter were paying the village a visit."

"You all misunderstand," Sunako clarified, "my father sent me here alone."

All of the kids were confused, except for Hanami, who was so pleased to see one of her friends that she ran up and embraced her in hug...a hug that the Sand heiress was clearly not totally comfortable with, but accepted anyway.

"Sunako! Its been a long time!" Hanami said.

"It has little one," Sunako said. "about two years since last I visited your family's house."

Hanami was all smiles. Her dad may have been a bit creepy, but Sunako, even if she was a bit cold, was one of Hanami's friends since she was little.

"Sunako," Shikadai interrupted, "what do you mean that Uncle Gaara sent you here by yourself?"

Sunako broke the hug and faced her cousin and the others. "My father has been called to a Kage Summit meeting by Councilman Uragi—"

"Technically, he's Interim-Hokage now," Inojin corrected.

Sunako stared at the Yamanaka coldly, "Not to my father he isn't."

"Nor to any of us," Bagu added. "Please go on."

"As the Kazekage, my father is required to be in attendance along with Lords Raikage, Tsuchikage, and Mizukage. Uragi claims that the meeting concerns some top secret proposal he want to make, and that it involves securing a weapon that could jeopardize the safety of the Hidden Villages if it were allowed to fall into the wrong hands."

Shikadai's brain quickly put the pieces together, thinking back to Shinachiku's mission before this whole mess started. "The Chakra Gem."

"Exactly," Sunako confirmed. "My father believed that the gem should be kept a secret until it can be properly decided who can be trusted with it, so he leant it to me for safe keeping."

The entire group fell silent at what the Sand kunoichi had just said.

"What?" she asked.

"Umm..." Chōchō began, "What do you mean your dad gave _you_ the gem?"

"Just as I said, he entrusted it to me so that it would stay safe, at least until I completed my mission here."

"Yeah...that doesn't make any sense," Ōkami rudely remarked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sunako," Hanami said getting her attention, "my big brother went with my Uncle Sasuke to find the Chakra Gem. How could your dad have given it to you?"

Sunako was actually surprised, but she did not overreact. The other kids were all waiting patiently for answers.

"You say Shinachiku traveled with Sasuke Uchiha to _find_ the Chakra Gem?" she asked.

"Yes," Tsuki said. "They left the village days ago, before his and Hanami's parents were forced to flee the village and Uragi took over."

Suddenly, a realization came across both the Kazekage's daughter and her cousin.

"They're looking for a different Chakra Gem!" they both said as one.

All of the children were clearly very confused, until Shikadai started explaining.

"When my dad told me about this mission Shinachiku was going on, he said that were _seven_ Chakra Gems out there, and they were only looking for one of them."

"That is correct," Sunako confirmed. "I know nothing of this Chakra Gem Lord Hokage's son is searching for..." she pulled something from her pocket that she held tightly in her hand. "...But this gem has been in my village's possession for decades now."

She opened her hand to reveal a small green gem, one that omitted a bright green light and gave off a power unlike any the children have seen before.

No sooner had the children got a glimpse of the powerful artifact than Sunako covered it back up in her hand, hoping that it's light did not attract unwanted attention.

"Whoa..." was all Ōkami could say in reaction.

"Its beautiful," Tsuki said.

"Never before have I encountered a power quite like it," Burandon noted.

"Ditto," was all Bagu could add.

"Such power could indeed be problematic if aloud to fall into the wrong hands," Inojin said.

Hanami didn't say anything, she was too entranced with glimpse she got of the glowing gem. 'So that's what onii-chan left to go find with Uncle Sasuke...?'

"Sunako," Shikadai, interrupted, "you said that Uncle Gaara sent you on a mission with that Chakra Gem? What _kind_ of mission exactly?"

Sunako walked over to Hanami, kneeled down to her eye level and put her hands on her shoulders. "I was sent here to collect Lord Hokage's children. My father does not believe any of the rumors about Naruto or Sakura's criminal actions, but with both of them on the run as wanted criminals he feared that their children may be in grave danger."

"He's got that right..." Ōkami muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"The day Naruto and Sakura were forced to leave," Inojin began explaining, "some Anbu Black Ops attempted to capture Hanami and they injected her with some sort of serum that have nullified her ability to access her chakra network."

Sunako did not say anything, but her eyes did widen in shock upon hearing this. She looked to the girl to see if it was true, to which she nodded her head sadly.

"They tried to take her," Bagu continued the explanation, "but before her chakra dissipated completely she used the last of it she had to create a shadow clone for the Anbu to take as a hostage instead."

Sunako turned back to the girl, "That was quite clever of you Hanami." The girl only nodded back.

"We found her inside a panic room hidden beneath her house," Tsuki added. "She was in beaten and battered shape since she couldn't use any chakra to heal herself. We were able to get her to Lady Tsunade's for healing thanks to help for Kakashi-sensei, Captain Yamato and Konohamaru-sensei."

"I see," Sunako said taking this all in. "Where are Lady Tsunade and the others now?"

All of the children got very guilty looks on their faces before Shikadai spoke up again for them.

"Anbu tracked down our hiding spot. They placed all of the grown ups under arrest...including our parents...all just so we could make our escape with Hanami."

Sunako felt sorry for the children's plight, but she showed limited expression on her face.

"I am sorry for your loss," she said to all of them, "but now that I have rendezvous with you all, perhaps I could invite you all with me as I take Hanami back to Suna."

"Wait, WHAT?!" Ōkami asked in shock.

"Were you not listening to what I explained earlier? My father gave me an assignment today to bring the Uzumaki children back so they may stay save. But if what you tell about Shinachiku's whereabouts is true, then it is for the best that I settle for just taking Hanami by herself. Unless the seven of you would like to come with her?"

The children all looked at each other, thinking long and hard about their decision. Clearly some of them wanted to stay and try to break their parents out of jail...but that would only risk putting Hanami in even more danger, and that would destroy everything that the adults sacrificed themselves to protect.

"So, do we have an agreement?" Sunako asked everyone.

"You know what I think?" Burandon said, "I believe that the next course of action ought to be Hanami's decision."

Sunako looked to Hanami, awaiting her answer. After a few seconds of thinking, the little girl sighed and gave her answer. "I'll go with you."

The other kids smiled and nodded to each other.

"I guess this means that we're all coming too," Chōchō said.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Ōkami shouted.

"What is it?" Sunako asked with a tinge of annoyance.

"Didn't you say that your dad gave you this mission **today?**"

"Yes," Sunako answered, not really getting the Inuzuka-Hyūga boy's point.

"Well, if that's true...then how the hell did you travel all the way from Suna to Konoha in less than a day?!"

All of the children, including Shikadai, widened their eyes at Ōkami's keen observation, and they all looked to the girl for an explanation.

"Actually," the girl responded, "it only took me less than a second to arrive here."

Everyone's mouths dropped open in shock at the Suna girl's statement.

"But that's impossible!" Tsuki declared.

"No it is not," Sunako countered, "not with this."

She held out her closed fist once again, and in that instant all the children understood...though they were still at a loss for words.

"That Chakra Gem," Shikadai questioned, "it...it has to power to teleport people?"

"Indeed," she confirmed. "Whoever possesses this gem has to power to teleport themselves or whomever else they wish wherever they want in the world instantaneously."

"So its like my daddy's Flying Thunder God jutsu?" Hanami asked.

"No. The Fourth Hokage's technique is incredibly powerful, but it can only teleport the user to wherever there is a marker set up by the user, but this chakra gem has no such limitation. It can take you literally wherever you want in the blink of an eye."

"Whoa..." all of the kids said in unison.

"So," Sunako interjected, "now that all of that has been cleared up, shall we go now?" Everyone nodded their heads in confirmation. "Very good. Everyone stand close to me."

They all did so and waited for...something.

"Umm..." Tsuki asked, "how exactly is this going to work?"

Sunako smiled only barely, "Just...don't move."

With that, the girl opened her hand and an intense green light emitted from the Chakra Gem. As soon as the green light appeared it was gone...and so were all of the children.

* * *

In another flash of green light, the children all reappeared once again, in a place none of them have ever seen before.

As they all got their bearings, they determined that they were in the middle of some sort of office, similar looking to the Hokage's office but with a lot less color.

Shikadai could tell immediately where they were, but he was the only one. The boy turned his head and, sure enough, there was a familiar auburn-haired man sitting at a desk.

"Uncle?"

"Hello nephew," Gaara said. "And hello Hanami, and the rest of you children. Welcome to Sunagakure."

* * *

Shinachiku woke up with a groggy sense of deja vu.

'What happened? The last thing I remember was that red light...'

The boy's eyes readjusted to the glare of the sun and he noticed his head was resting on something soft...something familiar. He also felt something running through his hair in a calming, caressing manner. But as his eye's finally came into focus, he saw a familiar face above him, a face he missed so much and had longed to see again for a while now.

"Mom?"

The woman above him immediately looked down to face him, her hand stopped running through his golden locks.

"S-Shinachiku?" Sakura asked, really more of a statement than a question.

The boy could only come up with one response that made sense. He smiled.

That was all it took. Tears of joy dripping down the mother's face onto her son's own face, Sakura pulled him into a bone-crushing hug from which she refused to release him.

Shinachiku couldn't help himself either, he wrapped his arms around his mother and returned the hug.

'This isn't a dream...She's really here. But how...? I thought she and dad were...wait...DAD!'

Thee boy snapped his head to see his father was there, having a conversation with his friends.

'Wait? How can dad's friends by here? Sai? Shikamaru? Aunt Ino? Aunt Hinata? What the hell is going on?'

"Shinachiku?" Sakura asked in worry.

The boy turned back to his mother, "Mom? How?"

"We came here looking for you? Your father and I thought you were in danger."

In that instant he heard another groaning voice next to him. Sarada was waking up as well. Karin noticed this and had the exact same reaction that Sakura did, hugging the girl against her chest like she'd never let her go again.

It was about that time that he sensed somebody else coming their way. He turned and saw his father sitting down next to Sakura with a huge, very happy smile on his face. He wrapped his arms around his son and his wife for a much needed group hug.

All of Naruto and Sakura's friends looked at the scene with happiness, Ino and Hinata even fought back tears at how beautiful it looked. Finally, after so much loss, pain and strife, the family was back together again...

_...Almost._

Shinachiku pulled away from his parents in fear, worrying both of them.

"What wrong sweetie?" asked Sakura.

"Mom...Dad...where's Hanami?"

The parent's faces faulted, as if the breath of life and happiness that had just overcome all of them was already disappearing. Sakura put a hand up to her mouth, fighting to keep back any more tears as she feared the worst.

Shinachiku was no better. 'I...no... No it can't be! I swore I'd protect her! I promised I'd come back to her! And I **couldn't** save her!'

Naruto, however, was quick to overcome his despair and put his bandaged, artificial hand on his son's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Shina, but your sister's not here...But mark my words that you, your mother and I and all of our friends, we're going to get back to the village, save our home, stop this Taka nonsense, and get Hanami back. **That's** a promise of a lifetime!"

Sakura and Shinachiku both listened to Naruto comfort and reassure them, in a way that only he could. As usual, it gave them the confidence and the motivation to dry their eyes and regain determination all over again.

'How does he do it?' Sakura wondered. 'How does he always know exactly what to say and how to motivate people to believe in themselves and do the right thing? Its just one of the reasons why I love him.'

'Dad...' Shinachiku thought, '...you really are the **coolest** dad ever, y'know!'

"Shinachiku?"

The boy looked over to see the all of his parent's friends, including his two surrogate aunts, smiling at him, happy to see the boy alive and well.

"Hey you guys! Hey Aunt Ino! Aunt Hinata! Shino-sensei! What're you all doing here?"

"We all came looking for your parents after...certain incidents happened back home," Shikamaru answered carefully.

"I figured I had to help make sure that one of my favorite students stayed safe," Shino said, in an unusually pleasant tone.

"Yes, but now that you are safe we are most grateful and relieved Shinachiku!" Lee said in his usual enthusiasm, causing Tenten to smile and shake her head to herself.

"It is...good to see you and Sarada are still alive," Sai complimented.

"You kids had us all pretty scarred," Ino said. "Thank God you're both safe."

"Yes, thank goodness," Hinata agreed, with Kiba placing his hand on her shoulder and smiling at the boy as well.

"Good to have you back kiddo!" Kiba proclaimed.

"Yeah, nice job kid," Chōji agreed.

Akamaru even walked over to the boy and nuzzled his snout against him in a friendly manner. The boy petted the old dog before the aging animal returned to his master.

"Shinachiku?"

The boy turned to the source of the voice, Sarada, still in her mother's embrace.

"I'm really sorry about your sister."

"Arigato Sarada...But don't worry, now that our mission here is finished we're going to go back to the village to get her back!" The boy said all of this with determination and spirit that mirrored his father's during his youth; Sakura smiled at this.

"I'd like to help with that if I can," Sarada asked, before getting a devilish smirk on her face. "And after that you can treat me to that present you owe me."

Shinachiku blushed bright red in embarrassment, and his mother noticed it.

"Shina, what is Sarada talking about?"

"Umm...nothing! It's nothing mom! Really!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Shinachiku Uzumaki! You know how I feel about you keeping secrets from me!"

"Aunt Sakura," Sarada answered for the boy, "Shinachiku and I made a deal that if we got out of that underground cave alive, then he would treat me to a private singing concert, just between the two of us."

Sakura was surprised by this, before putting on a really cocky expression and turning back to her son. "Oh you did, did you?"

Poor Shinachiku was feeling really, **really** embarrassed now.

"Sarada," Karin interrupted, "how did you get Shina to agree to such a thing?"

Sarada stole a quick glance at Shinachiku out off the corner of her eye, noticing him making a 'shut up!' gesture with his hands that, thankfully, Sakura didn't notice.

"Oh, well, I got a bit scarred down there and Shinachiku wanted to cheer me up," Sarada lied. "So he offered to sing to me to help lift my spirits."

"Oh. Well that was sweet of you," Karin said to the boy.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "Just don't let your sister find out about this young man, or else she's bound to get jealous."

"T-Thanks mom," Shinachiku said scratching the back of his head.

As Sakura and Karin smiled at each other over how cutely they felt their kids were getting along, Sarada shot the boy a look. It was a smug-yet-stern look that telegraphed a very clear message: "If you try to weasel your way out of our deal, I _will_ tell your mom about those dirty magazines under your bed!"

What could the boy do...she'd totally blackmailed him...not-so-fair and square.

"Well isn't this a beautiful sight?!"

Everyone turned to be greeted by a certain red-and-black clad, masked ninja missing-nin with a big mouth.

"All of these old friends back together, the kids safe and sound, the boy about to serenade to his girl...Smooth move by the way young lady...And everyone's favorite missing-nin with a mouth gets to be here to see it!"

"Umm..._who_ are you again?" Chōji asked in confusion.

Sasuke decided to answer for him, 'His name's Randamu; he's a missing-nin with no past and with an incredible healing ability that may put even Naruto's to shame...Also he's kind of insane and likes to talk nonsense, never shuts up, and claims he has the power to 'break the Fourth Wall,' whatever that means."

"Hey!" Randamu shouted, "I told you before Sasuke, I'm not insane! I just _act_ insane to keep myself from _going_ insane! ...But thanks again for the complement!"

Nobody from the Konoha 12 had any idea what to say, nor did Shinachiku and Sarada, both standing up on their own now and both kind of worried how Shinachiku's parents were going to react to their new 'friend.'

"Umm...okay then," was the only reaction Shikamaru could make, though he did whisper into Chōji's ear, "What a weirdo!"

Even Lee was creeped out by this guy, 'This man's youthfulness may be too much even for the likes of me!'

"But seriously," Randamu interrupted, "I'm sure Sasuke must have told all of you about me before now, right ladies?"

Ino narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "Nope. Not a thing."

Randamu then, in seemingly the blink of an eye and with absolutely no warning whatsoever, snuck up next to Naruto, alarming the blonde male as the masked man shook his hand with _way_ too much enthusiasm.

"So, Mr. Naruto Uzumaki, wait, can I call you Naruto? Oh whatever! Anyway, I don't know if you caught it before but I'm one of your **biggest** fans!" Randamu suddenly pulled back out his limited hardcover collector's edition of _The Tale of Naruto_ along with a ball-point pen, once again pulling them out of absolutely nowhere. "Would you mind autographing your book for me. _**Pleeeeeeaaaassssseeeee?!**_"

Naruto was totally taken aback by this sudden fanboy attention he was getting from this total stranger. Even after dealing with fans for decades now, some of whom were willing to do some pretty extreme things, something about this guy just came off...weird. He stole a glance at Sasuke as if to ask if this guy was for real, and Sasuke's only response was to shrug his shoulders.

"Ah...Of course!" Naruto decided to agree. "Always a pleasure to do anything for my fans." He said that somewhat through gritted teeth.

As Naruto signed his name and a message on the inside of the book, Randamu was really close to his personal space, acting all giddy and fangirly while doing so.

'Where the hell did Sasuke dig up this nutjob?!' Naruto thought to himself as he handed the book back to Randamu.

The masked man read the autograph out loud. _"Dear Randamu, hang in there and keeping smiling. Believe it! Your friend, Naruto Uzumaki."_ He closed the book and went into fanboy mode again, squealing like a preteen girl. "Ohhh! Thank you so much! You're so awesome! Oh wait!"

He reached behind himself and pulled something out a non-existent pouch attached to his hip. It looked like a doll, a plush doll, home made, apparently in Naruto's own image. It had blue button eyes, yellow cloth hair, a makeshift Leaf Village headband, and makeshift doll clothes resembling Naruto's signature orange jumpsuit.

"I made this Naruto doll for you!" Randamu squeezed the doll and it made a squeaking sound as he pushing it into Naruto's personal space.

Poor Naruto, once again, was at a loss for words. "Oh...umm...thank you Randamu. Its...its...cute." Naruto grinned like an idiot as he, awkwardly and reluctantly, accepted the doll.

Naruto's friends could only stare at the scene in confusion (or in Sasuke's, Karin's, Suigetsu's and Jūgo's case, embarrassment) at what they were seeing.

Kiba leaned into Shino's ear and whispered, "Where'd he get that book and the doll from anyway?" Shino's only response was to shake his head in bewilderment.

"Thank you so much again Naruto!" Randamu said. "Oh! But can I tell you one more thing?"

Naruto groaned, "Alright! What?!"

"...You're wife's smoking hot!"

**"WHAAAAATTTTT?!"**

Out of nowhere, Randamu crept up to Sakura's side, creeping the pink-haired woman out big time!

"Helllooo there! I don't believe we've met." He took the woman's hand as he got on one knee. "My name is Randamu, missing-nin by reputation, mercenary by profession...and lover by passion!" He wagged his eyebrows suggestively, and not he least bit subtly, through his mask.

Sakura was **not** amused. "Let go of my hand creep or I swear to God I will crush every single bone in your body."

"Go ahead, I'll just put myself back together again."

"It's true, he will," Sasuke added. "But seriously Randamu, you probably **don't** want to risk anything with Sakura. You have no idea what she can do to you!"

"Oh that's alright," Randamu said cockily. "For a smoking hot piece of ass like her, I'll risk it! Tell me Sakura, for real, what _is_ the policy on ménage a trios?"

"WHAT?!" Sakura yelled in disgust.

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled in fury, his friends forced to hold him back. "Get away from my wife you son of a bitch! I'll whoop your ass!"

"What?" Randamu whined. "She's married to the undisputed master of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, so obviously she has experience in threeways."

Sakura looked like she was going to die of embarrassment...just as soon as she murdered this perverted jerk!

"The only way you're touching her is over her dead body, you sick perverted bastard!" Ino yelled, before getting a smug look on her face. "Besides, from everything I've gotten Sakura to tell me, you could _never_ live up to Naruto."

"INO!" Both Naruto and Sakura shouted in humiliation.

"Oh yeah!" Randamu countered, "well, I'm willing to take that challenge!" He started doing obscene gestures without any dignity whatsoever, including thrusting into an invisible woman. Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and even Hinata were all ready to rip his head off by this point.

And then, the perverted missing-nin with a mouth went one gigantic step too far. He reach back into his 'magic satchel' and pulled out a photograph. "Hey Sakura, wanna see a picture of me naked? I'll show you mine if you agree to show me yours—"

**"AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!"**

Sakura delivered a full-powered, unrelenting, unforgiving chakra-enhanced punch right into Randamu's jaw. The masked man went flying clear to the opposite end of the island, leaving a trail that tore through the ground, the trees, the ruined buildings, everything.

...Normally, seeing Sakura display such unrelenting power would be utterly terrifying to Naruto, Shinachiku, and everyone else...But Randamu _really_ had that coming.

Randamu, with heavy effort, climbed out of the crater he'd landed in, his bones snapping back into place, including his neck and jaw, and all of his many, many gashes and holes, already self-repairing.

"Oooohhh! OWWWWW! AAAAAGGGHHHHHH! Damn!...I deserved that, didn't I?"

**"YES!"** Sakura, Naruto, Ino, Karin, Hinata and Tenten all said in unison.

Sarada leaned into to whisper something into Shinachiku's ear. "Y'know, your mom can be _really_ scary sometimes."

Shinachiku merely gulped and replied, "I know."

* * *

And on that humorous note we close out another chapter!

Sorry if I didn't offer you guys a huge cliffhanger this time, but I decided to take some advice given to me by SilentRaider52. He suggested that I take a time out to savor the reunion of the family again, which I wanted to do, and even now that I've written it I hope it was good enough to satisfy you.

Of course, to make sure you all left this chapter with a smile on your face, I decided to end it with Randamu officially introducing himself to Naruto, Sakura, and all of their friends...And what a first impression it was!

While we are talking about that scene, the idea for Randamu's interactions with both Naruto and Sakura were inspired by two episodes of "The Legend of Korra." In the episode "The Stakeout," Team Avatar is trying to rent a room to do a stakeout of a traitor from the Metal Clan who is allied with the evil Zaheer. When they get to the inn, they are approached by two rough looking bounty hunters who they think are there to collect a bounty on their heads...but instead in turns out they just want to get Bolin's autograph because they are both HUGE fans of his mover series "The Adventures of Nuktuk: Hero of the South." Randamu's fangirl behavior, Naruto's awkwardness, the plush doll, all of it was inspired by this scene...which in turn was likely inspired by an encounter the creators had with a a real-life fan. LOL!

The other episode that served as an inspiration was called "Reunion," where Korra finally reunites with Asami and Mako for a lunch date, only for the obnoxious Prince Wu to get in the way and blatantly hit on Korra, much to her annoyance. Some of that was on my mind in crafting the stuff between Randamu and Sakura...only with the perverted factor turned up to the max! LOL!

This chapter also introduced yet another new character, Sunako, Gaara's daughter. I was trying to make her seem as cold and aloof as her father was, and probably still is to some extent, just without the cold-hearted murderer aspect.

The reveal that Sunagakure in already in possession of one of the Chakra Gems opens up still more possibilities. Who knows where the other gems are now, or if will even be seeing all of them in the story...Or whether or not Taka is _already_ in possession of any of them!

By the way, just a minor reference, but Sunako's line "Just...don't move," was based on a line that Professor Xavier says in "X2: X-Men United." He first says it to Wolverine and then later to Jason Stryker while he appears before Charles as that creepy little girl. Both times it was a heads up before he activates Cerebro in their presence. I just thought that it was an appropriate line for what the gem was going to do and I had Patrick Stewart's exact delivery in my head as I wrote it.

I hope I made it clear the difference between what the green Chakra Gem can do and what Naruto can do with his Flying Thunder God Technique. While the technique required markers to teleport where he wants to go, the Chakra Gem allows for godlike instantaneous movement that will take you anywhere you want in under a second just by thinking about it.

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope you enjoyed it, and as always feel free to leave a comment. Until next time, see ya!


	22. Chapter 22--Solemn Reunions

Hey everyone, thesaiyanjedi is back with the next exciting chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

In all seriousness, I'm sorry that this one took so long to get out. Work has seriously picked up by now and it is leaving me increasingly less time to commit to my writing. But don't worry, things will smooth out soon enough.

I want to thank all of you, once again, for your continued support and feedback as I continue working to make this story better and better.

So, with all of that said...let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 22: Solemn Reunions**

"Hey Shina?" Naruto called out to his son.

"Yeah Dad?"

"I forgot to ask you...Did you and Sarada find the Chakra Gem?"

Shinachiku's eyes widened as he too had forgotten about the very thing that he came here for in the first place. He looked and realized that he still held it tightly in the grip of his own hand.

"Uncle Naruto," Sarada answered for the boy, "Shinachiku and I found the gem inside an underwater cave filled with traps and puzzles that we had to solve together, puzzles that surely would have gotten us killed if we hadn't been more clever. We found an old man down there who let us have the gem if we solved a riddle for him. When we touched it, it caused that big red beam of light you saw."

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Karin, and everyone else were stunned at what the bifocaled girl had just told them, even if it was only a brief summary.

"Wow..." was the only reaction Lee and Tenten could come up with.

"Wait a minute," Sasuke interrupted, "you say you found an old man down there guarding the gem?" Sarada nodded her head. "But that would have been generations ago. How could somebody have survived down there for so long?"

"That's what the two of us said," Sarada confirmed. "He told us that one of the Chakra Gems made him immortal."

Once again, everyone there went slack-jawed at the girl's statement. Some of the adults even had their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"So...So that thing that Shinachiku's holding make you immortal?!" Chōji asked in disbelief.

"No Chōji," Shikamaru corrected. "She specifically said that _one of_ the Chakra Gems did that. If it was indeed the one that they have, she would have used a a more specific world choice."

"Thanks for the grammar lesson, Mr. Wizard," Randamu said, having finally made it back to their side of the island...in a bizarrely short amount of time since Sakura mega-punched him.

"Who's Mr. Wizard?" Shikamaru asked.

"Forget about it."

Naruto got suspicious from hearing all of this. And he couldn't help but notice the way his son still held the gem tightly in his hand, almost like he wasn't even conscious of it, nor that he hasn't said a word this entire time.

"Shinachiku," he said, "let us see the gem please?'

The boy looked at his father and then back at his hand. He didn't know why he was grasping the gem so tightly...but something inside him was telling him to. Some small, faint idea was in the back of his mind warning him that this thing might not be safe in someone else's hands...

'Wait! What am I thinking about that for?! This is my dad and his friends here! They can be trusted! ...But still, who knows what the gem could do to them? Maybe I should keep it with me for the time being—'

"Shinachiku!" Naruto yelled to get the boy's attention. "Didn't you hear me? I told you to show us the gem."

Shinachiku, with a sense of reluctance he could not understand, held up his hand and opened it in front of everyone.

As soon as his hand came open, a bright red light came off the crimson gem. The power it omitted was overwhelming...and terrifying.

Everyone stood in a mix of awe and horror at the artifact that the boy held in the palm of his hand. The four parents in particular—Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Karin—were overcome with wonder at what their son and godson was holding. Even Sarada, the one who had recovered the gem with him, found herself overcome with shock at the power she herself had tasted in the underwater cave.

As for Shinachiku himself, he seemed to be in a trance. His eyes were closed and on his face was a smile of...contentment. It was almost like some part of him was enjoying the power coursing in his hand...

...Until something else inside him snapped him back to reality and he quickly closed his hand and, in doing so, the red light disappeared. The boy looked somewhat scarred, almost ashamed of himself, for the indulgence of power he had just tasted.

"Shina? Sweetie, are you all right?" Sakura asked in worry.

The blonde Genin paused for a moment before putting on a smile as if he was fine. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine mom. Don't worry about me."

Naruto, however, eyed his son suspiciously. He had been forced to wear a mask with a fake smile for much of his own childhood, so he could tell one when he saw one.

"Shinachiku," he called out to his son as he extended his hand, "I think its for the best that you let the grown ups hold onto that for now."

"Are...Are you sure that's wise Dad? What if something happens to it?"

Sasuke was eyeing the boy's curious behavior too. "I think you should do what your father says kid. I don't know exactly what power this gem has, but the adults can keep it safe until a plan can be set in motion."

Shinachiku looked down at the gem in his hand, his grip tightening around it for just a moment. He then walked over to his father and put it in the former Hokage's own hand.

Naruto quickly closed his hand around the gem and tucked it into his pocket, zipping it up for safe keeping.

While the two mothers traded curious glances at one another, some the Konoha 11 (or the Konoha 12 when you include Sasuke), were getting a weird vibe off of what had just happened. Some of them—namely Shikamaru, Shino, and Sai—were getting just as suspicious about the boy's behavior as the two father's were.

"Well," Shino decided to speak up, "now that we have the gem in our possession, what is our next course of action?"

"We need to make sure that Taka doesn't get their hands on this thing at any costs," Sasuke proclaimed. "By us finding it first we have an advantage over Uragi and his followers, but for right now, I think—**AAAGGGHHHH!**"

Sasuke's speech was cut off as he felt a kunai lodge itself in his back. He could not help but fall over in pain.

"SASUKE!" Karin, Naruto and Sakura all shouted.

"DAD!" Sarada screamed.

"UNCLE!" Shinachiku shouted.

Everyone looked to see where the kunai had come from, save for Karin, who quickly dashed to her husband to try and heal him. What they saw when they turned surprised them and quickly put them on guard.

There before them were two ninja, clothed head-to-toe in black and with black masks covering their entire head save for their eyes areas. One of them appeared to be a tall male, the other a shapely female. Their eyes seemed...cold...empty...emotionless.

Everybody else was on the defensive while in their presence, except for Naruto. He was...well, he couldn't explain it. There was something odd about these two. Something about their chakra felt...familiar.

Even Shinachiku, now totally over the bizarre inner conflict that he was feeling before, felt something strange about the aura given off by these two assassins, despite never having felt anything like it in his life.

Karin wasn't paying attention to any of this. She was too busy offering her shoulder to Sasuke for him to bite down on once the kunai was pulled out of his back. Her husband bit down on her neck like a vampire and, while in other circumstances she may find this erotic, Karin remained focused on channeling her chakra into Sasuke to quickly heal his wound. Soon enough, the cut in his back healed as if it were never their at all.

"Arigato Karin," Sasuke thanked his wife as he got back up, using his one remaining arm for support.

Karin helped him back to his feet, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before the two of them rejoined their teammates in a battle position.

It was Naruto who finally broke the long, tense silence. "Who are you?"

The two assassins did not say anything, only stared coldly.

"I asked you a question!" Naruto demanded. "Who are you?!"

The male assassin broke the silence. "Who we are is of no consequence. All you need to know, Naruto Uzumaki, is that Lord Hokage has ordered the capture of both you and your wife. Any attempts to resist will result in your termination."

Sakura got into a defensive posed as she narrowed her eyes. "That's not going to happen!"

This time it was the female assassin who spoke up. "I'm afraid that it will. You and all of your accomplices will return to the village with us to face justice for your crimes against the Hidden Leaf Village, and you will hand over the Chakra Gem that you are now carrying as well."

Naruto attempted to play dumb. "Chakra Gem? What are you talking about?"

"Do not insult our intelligence boy," the woman said sternly.

"_Boy?_ I'll have you know I'm 34 years old—"

"Silence." the man said in cold anger. "This matter is not up for negotiation. You all are under arrest, Lord Hokage's orders."

"Uragi is **not** the Hokage!" the orange clad blonde defied "**I** am!"

"Not anymore," said the woman.

"Watch your mouth bitch!" Kiba shouted in anger. "Do you have any idea who you are talking to?!"

"Indeed," the man answered. "Naruto Uzumaki: latest reincarnation of Asura Ōtsutsuki, born October 10th, thirty-four years ago, the day that Obito Uchiha, a.k.a. Tobi of the Akatsuki, unleashed the Nine-Tailed Fox upon the Hidden Leaf Village. On that same day he was chosen to become the Nine-Tails' third jinchūriki, enduring twelve years of loneliness and rejection until finally learning his true nature and graduating the Academy. He was then assigned to a team consisting of himself, Uchiha clan survivor Sasuke, and his future wife Sakura Haruno, all under the tutelage of future Sixth Hokage Kakashi Hatake. He was further trained under Sannin Jiraiya, the toads of Mount Myōboku, Killer B, the jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, and ultimately became the hero of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, eventually becoming Seventh Hokage and marrying at age 22 and going on to father two children."

The group were all stunned for a moment, until Kiba was forced to retract his previous outcry. "Okay...I guess you _do_ know who you're messing with."

"If you think that we'll just let you take our friends with you without a fight, think again!" Lee proclaimed.

"Yeah!" Ino agreed. "You've got a problem with them, then you've got a problem with all of us!"

"And in case you haven't noticed, there's sixteen of us and only two of you." Shino pointed out.

That was when Randamu had to open his big mouth again and ruin everything. "Umm...actually there's eighteen of us here. You forgot to include the kids."

"SHUT UP!" Everyone shouted at the red-masked loudmouth.

"The foolish one is correct," the female assassin said. "If those children are present as well, then they are just as guilty of suspicion of complicity as the rest of you. And since they are both of Genin rank and age, they are both excused from any minor protection laws."

"You leave my son out of this!" Sakura shouted in fury.

"Lay a finger on my daughter and I'll cut your heart out! Karin yelled.

"Enough of this," the male assassin stated coldly. "Turn yourselves and the Chakra Gem over to us, or be destroyed...And don't bother trying to make any diversion so that the children can escape. No one leaves here unless its in handcuffs or in a body bag."

* * *

"Sunako," Gaara said, getting his daughter's attention, "I gave you a mission to recover both of Naruto and Sakura's children. Instead you return with only their daughter and several of their friends, including your cousin. What is the meaning of this?"

Sunako bowed to the Kazekage before explaining. "Forgive me father, but Shinachiku Uzumaki was not in the village at the time of my arrival, and young Hanami is in serious need of medical assistance. The rest of these children, cousin Shikadai included, have been tasked with protecting her from Anbu double agents. Their parent's and several of their sensei's, Lady Tsunade included, bought them time to make their escape."

"Hmm...I see." Gaara closed his eyes in thought for just a moment before looking to the pink-haired girl. "Do you remember me, young one?"

Hanami was a bit creeped out but the 34-year old man sitting at the desk in front of her, but she bowed and answered him anyway. "Hai; you are the Kazekage, one of my daddy's closest friends."

Gaara actually smirked at this. "Indeed, but please, as I've told you before, you may call me Gaara." He then looked back to his daughter, "What sort of condition is she in?"

"According to her friends," Sunako explained, "she has had some sort of serum injected into her body that has completely nullified her access to her chakra network."

_"What?!"_ Gaara leaped out of his chair in shock.

"It's true uncle," Shikadai interrupted. "We found her beaten and bruised and unable to heal herself because of what the Anbu had done. If we hadn't found her when we did, she may have died. Lady Tsunade was just able to heal her wounds before they arrested her."

As pissed off as Gaara was about this, and make no mistake that he was, his mind also found itself drifting back to something else.

'This reminds me of that day, the first time Naruto and Sakura tried to get married. An assassin with the exact opposite nullifying ability attacked, and we did find out the truth about it...There must be a connection. Perhaps—_Wait a minute!_'

Something that Sunako told him before fully clicked in the Kazekage's brain, and it sent him into a panic. He needed clarification right away.

Shikadai?" he called out to get his nephew's attention.

"Hai?" the boy asked.

"Your cousin tells me that all of your parent's bought you time to make your escape...Does that include your mother?"

Shikadai hung his head in shame. "Hai. I'm sorry uncle."

Gaara slumped back into his chair at the weight of all of this. Temari, his big sister, was now a prisoner of the enemy, whoever or whatever it was.

"So what do we do now?" Chōchō asked.

Gaara, despite his grief, was forced to get himself back into kage mode and address that obvious question.

"Well, the first thing I'm going to do is get you kids set up with a place to stay. My home is large enough and I believe I will have enough space for all of you, although some of you might have to share rooms." Gaara then noticed some of the nervous glances that the three girls were exchanging, to which he sighed. "Don't worry, I'll give explicit orders to assign boys and girls to separate rooms."

"What about Hanami father?" Sunako asked.

"Normally I would not hesitate to check her into our hospital to examine her condition, but with her parents now labeled wanted fugitives, this is now a major complication."

Shikadai picked up on what his uncle was getting at. "You can't let word get out that you are harboring the Hokage's daughter because it might get your charged with aiding and abiding."

'Precisely." He looked back to girl. "Hanami, I need you to be honest with me. Are you in any other pain right now other than not being able to use your chakra?"

"No sir."

"Hmm...well, so be it then. Until another opportunity presents itself, this will just have to be how it plays out."

"Excuse me," Inojin interrupted, "but perhaps it would be possible to bring Hanami's brother here as well. We do know that he and Sarada's father have been traveling to the Hidden Whirlpool Village, and with the Chakra Gem your village has—"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible."

The kids were all left totally confused at what the Kazekage just said.

"But Sunako said that it can teleport us anywhere we want," Tsuki asked.

"Allow me to elaborate," Sunako interrupted as she held up the gem that was encased in the palm of her closed hand. "This gem does indeed allow instantaneous movement to wherever the user wishes, however, it requires the user to have a precise mental picture for the jump to occur successfully without any negative consequences."

"What negative consequences?" asked Bagu.

"If you wanted to travel somewhere that you've never been before, then you have no idea what the environment or setting there is like. Therefore, who's to say that you will not end up reappearing inside a wall, on at the bottom of a lake or in some other unfortunate place? For this reason, such blind teleportation is, theoretically, impossible." She paused before continuing. "Furthermore, holding the gem in your hand and using it does tend to consume a massive amount of chakra, leaving you only good enough for two jumps per day. That's why my mission was to travel to Konoha, find the Hokage's children, and return home without being seen."

"So that means...?" Burandon started in semi-confusion.

"It means that even though I have visited Konoha with my father enough times that I could properly picture where I wanted to be teleported to, none of us here have ever been to the Land of Whirlpools before."

"So I guess that gem isn't that much different than Naruto's jutsu after all, huh?" Ōkami asked with a tinge of attitude.

"No, it is. As I've stated before, the Flying Thunder God technique require pre-planted physical markers to be properly executed, but the gem is limited only by the mentality of the user."

There was silence for several minutes as the children all took this added clarification in.

"So, does this mean that you have no more chakra left?" Hanami asked.

"Essentially, yes," Sunako confirmed. "I fear that I will not of much use to you until my chakra reserves replenish themselves."

None of the kids said anything, but they all understood as they took all of this in.

"Uncle Gaara, thank you for this," Shikadai said.

"It was my pleasure nephew."

At that moment, the door to the Kazekage's office opened and in stepped a familiar sand shinobi.

"Hey Gaara, I've got some paperwork here that needs your—"

The puppet master stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the crowd of children gathered in his office...one in particular he recognized instantly.

"Hey Uncle Kankurō."

"Umm...hey Shikadai." He looked up to stare squarely at his brother. "Mind filling me in on what the hell is going on here?! What are all these kids doing here?! And especially why is Naruto's daughter here?!"

Gaara sighed before answering. "Brother, take a seat, there's a lot I need to fill you in on."

* * *

"Well this is rich," Yamato remarked from the prison cell he shared with Konohamaru.

"We all did the right thing Tenzo, or do you need reminding of that?" Kakashi asked with warning from within the cell he shared with Guy.

"Of course I don't. I'm just pointing out the misfortune of the situation is all."

"At least Hanami and the kids had enough time to get away," Konohamaru said. "That's what matters right now."

"Konohamaru's right," Shizune said from her and Tsunade's cell. "I just hope that they're safe out there and none of them get caught."

"We're all worried about them," Temari said from her, Kurenai's and Kurai's cell. "Don't forget that my son is out there too."

"And my daughter," Karui chimed up.

"I probably don't need to point this out," Kurenai interrupted, "but it's fortunate that the guards aren't here now to listen to this conversation."

There was silence for a few moments as they Jōnin all weighed their options and plotted out what to do next.

"We can't just wait here forever," Yamato said. "Sooner or later they are going too decide a fate for all of us and then we'll all be dead-to-rights."

"And suppose we did make an escape, what then?" Kakashi countered. "Then we'd all be labeled wanted fugitives just like Naruto and Sakura are. At least this way we have not been charged with anything of the sort yet. Perhaps it's for the best that we all remain where we are for now?"

"Normally I'd be against such a lack of youthfulness Kakashi," Guy interjected, "but in this case I feel inclined to agree."

Shizune turned to her former mistress sitting in the corner of their cell. "What do you think m'lady?"

Tsunade was not saying anything. She couldn't even if she tried. Her mind was simply too distraught with horror at what she had seen in the safe house. The elderly woman's eyes were glossed over in shock and she could feel herself in a cold sweat of terror.

"M'lady?" Shizune repeated in concern. "Lady Tsunade please?!"

There was no response from the Sannin.

"It's best to leave her be for now Shizune," Kakashi advised.

"But Lord Sixth—I mean Kakashi, she's been like this for hours now! She hasn't said a word this whole time!"

"Can you really blame her?" Karui pointed out.

Shizune, frowning, knelled down to her master's side and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Lady Tsunade...I know you must be shaken up by what you saw...But he's...he's not the man you once knew. I don't know what it is they've done to him or why, but none of it is your fault. You understand that, don't you?"

Tsunade stayed in her exact same position for a few more moments until, finally, she broke her silence as a single tear fell down her face.

"Nawaki...Dan..._Him_..." Tsunade looked to her worried former pupil in remorse. "Shizune, I have seen a lot of death in my time...I've lost so many of those I love...And now..." She got herself choked up and almost wasn't able to finish her sentence. "And now I have one of them back...and he looked right at me...and it was like he didn't even _know_ me."

Shizune really didn't know what to say, which shamed her, so she resorted to the only thing she cold think of to do. She wrapped her arms around her master and brought her into a hug.

Inside the other two cells, the others were watching the scene in similar mindsets. It was a shock to all of them to see _him_ walking around again after so long. And yet it really was true...it was a though he had no memory of any of them, as if he were an empty shell...a puppet.

They were broken out of their thoughts when they heard some sort of commotion coming from outside the prison wing. It sounded like one of the guards was talking to a young shinobi, a young woman. It was a voice that Kurenai recognized instantaneously and jumped up upon hearing it.

"That's Mirai!"

The others, even Tsunade to a lesser extent, paid close attention to the conversation going on outside.

"I'm sorry miss Sarutobi," one of the guards said, "but this prison wing is off limits to anyone not on official duty or business, including those of Chūnin or Jōnin rank."

"Please," Mirai went on, "I'm just trying to locate my mother. She was supposed to come back home hours ago, but instead she went to lunch with her friends and never came back. I've been looking throughout the entire village for her and I can't find her anywhere, and she's not answering her phone either. I just wanted to ask if anybody here has seen her?"

"I'm sorry miss, but no one here has seen Kurenai-sensei. And now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Mirai tried to make her way past the guard. "Please, if I could just speak to the warden—"

The guard blocked her way with stern glares. "No ma'am. No one has access. Now please leave."

The young kunoichi, in irritation, huffed and left the way she came...

...What she could not hear were the desperate cries of her mother in the detention area the guard was standing watch over. The wall were protected by a silencing jutsu so that the prisoners could hear what was going on outside, but no one but the guards could hear what was happening on the inside.

Kurenai, after nearly exhausting her throat trying to call out to her daughter, sat back down in a slump, putting her head in her hands.

"My little girl was right there, and she couldn't even hear me."

"Don't blame yourself," Temari said, "we'll find another way out of here...somehow..." Then, an amazing thought just occurred to the sand sibling. "Maybe my son and his friends could reach out to my brothers back in Suna? Surely they could do something to help us."

"Temari," Karui countered, "you of all people should realize how far away it is from here to Sunagakure. Even if those kids are able to break through the quarantine and get out of the village, do you _really_ think that they'd make a trip like that all on their own?"

"Never underestimate the next generation," Konohamaru said, causing everyone to look at him. "I'm paraphrasing something my grandfather once said."

"He's right," Kakashi said. "If those kids are anything at all like their parent's then Hanami is in good hands, wherever they are now."

As the rest of the adults sat in their cells in silence, Kakashi started thinking. 'Speaking of their parent's I can't help but wonder where they are now. Whatever the case, with everything that's happened already let's hope that it doesn't get any worse...unless...'

Kakashi's face went pale and his head snapped up in reaction to a horrifying thought that just entered his brain. He thought back to the shocking return of an old ally he witnessed today, and then he thought of his two students. Putting those two things together, a horrific possibility became obvious to him.

'Oh Go no...!'

* * *

The company of ninja stood silent. The masked assassins before them have just threatened their lives unless they complied, including the children's lives. Such arrogance! Such impudence! ...Such authority.

No one could explain it, but there was something about these two that exalted an air of authority, an air of power and formidability that frightened them...Particularly Naruto.

Nevertheless, the blonde former Hokage needed to remain firm and stake his ground. "You dare threaten me and my friends, my **family**, like that?! Who the hell do you think you are?!"

The woman answered, "We are the one's who will bring you back to the Hidden Leaf Village to face justice; that is all you need to know."

"Over our dead bodies," Chōji growled in defiance.

"If it should come to that, so be it," the male ninja said pulling out a kunai in the process.

Hinata got into the defensive position of her clan and activated her Byakugan, "If you come anywhere near us or these children, you will regret it."

Tenten opened up her weapons scroll and released a pair of solid oak nunchakus, which she promptly tossed to Lee who grabbed them, did some lavish moves with them, and then got into his own defensive pose.

"Yosh!" he shouted. "We will not allow you to take this band of brothers and sisters as your prisoners."

Shino was already readying his bugs as he glanced over at the Green Beast of Konoha. "What he said."

Kiba and Akamaru merely growled, Akamaku, despite his age, looked like he was ready to bite somebody's head off.

Shikamaru took his own pose as he prepared his shadow technique.

Ino and Sai got into their own positions, Ino getting ready to unleash her clan's mind paralyzing abilities, while Sai got out his brush and drawing scroll.

Karin took a pose as she unleashed her chakra chains for both attack and defense, while Suigetsu got out his gigantic sword and Jūgo took his own stance. Randamu unsheathed the pair of swords that were on his back.

Sasuke pointed his arm to the ground and used his chakra to charge electricity into it, the building attack giving off a distinct chirping sound.

Sakura was poised to released her seal as she already began channeling her chakra into her fist.

Naruto summoned the tailed beast sealed within him and, for the second time that day, enveloped himself in an aura resembling golden flames as he formed two Rasenshurikens in each of his hands.

"Shinachiku! Sarada! You two stay back!" He shouted. "Let the grown ups handle this!"

The two kids both wanted to raise their voices to object. They were both Genin damn it! They could take care of themselves! But the stern, almost threatening glare that Naruto gave them, in his current form no less, was enough to keep them quiet.

The two assassins said nothing and merely stared down the troupe of thirty-something shinobi. No one was sure just how long they remained silent for, seconds, minutes, hours...all they knew that it was Shikamaru that finally broke the silence.

"SHADOW POSSESSION JUTSU!"

The Nara's shadow jetted out towards the two assassins...who merely stood there as the shadow repelled itself back to it's caster before even making contact with it's targets.

'WHAT!' Shikamaru thought in alarm.

"MULTI-SIZE TECHNIQUE!" Chōji yelled as his body expanded to superhuman size. "SPIKED HUMAN BULLET TANK!"

Chōji rolled towards the assassins like a giant boulder with his hair strengthened into spikes, but the technique was repelled once he got into close proximity.

"MIND DESTRUCTION JUTSU!" Ino's technique could do nothing to penetrate the enemy's minds.

"NINJA ART: SUPER BEAST IMITATING DRAWING!" Sai rapidly painted a pair of enormous, ferocious lion beasts onto his scroll which promptly burst off the parchment into full-fledged life...but once they came within range of the targets they completely dissolved into giant globs of ink.

'This is just like...' Sai thought as he remembered what happened years ago at Naruto and Sakura's wedding.

It looked like everyone else was getting the same idea as they started relying more on taijutsu techniques from now on. Lee, naturally, was leading the charge.

"TAIJUTSU STYLE: LEAF HURRICANE!" Lee yelled as he came after them with both his nunchakus and his bare fists and feet in a flurry of martial arts moves. The two enemies were clearly challenged by Lee's incredible skill, but it was nevertheless clear that both of them have each been well-trained and were anything but a push over, especially the male ninja, whose speed was matching, if not surpassing Lee's own.

"TWIN RISING DRAGONS!" Tenten called out as she unsealed two scrolls that shot up into the air in a helix formation. She then jumped up in between the two scrolls and released an absolute assault of weapons at the two enemies. Their evasion skills were formidable however.

"HUMAN BEAST COMBINATION TRANSFORMATION: THREE-HEADED WOLF!" Kiba and Akamaru performed their signature combination technique as Akamaru transformed along with it's master into a gigantic three-headed beast, one that the woman was able to subdue with what appeared to be...

'Chakra chains!' Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Karin all recognized instantly.

Hinata engaged the masked woman in the signature taijutsu fighting style of her clan, showing off just how profound, and elegant, her movements have now become as a fully grown woman. At first she tried using her Twin Lions Fist technique, but it was not able to access their chakra network. So instead she relied on the basics.

"GENTLE FIST STYLE: PROTECTING EIGHT TRIGRAMS SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!" Hinata let loose with a flurry of attacks that, to her astonishment, the two of them were able to either dodge or deflect.

Shino decided to try something a bit more inconspicuous. He remembered the insect he used to incapacitate Odaku earlier and released it to sneak up to the enemy beneath their notice...only for one of them to grasp the tiny insect out of thin air and crush it in the palm of their hand, without even looking in it's direction!

These assassins, whoever they were, weren't just gifted, they were amazing!

"All right! That's it!" Suigetsu yelled as he and Jūgo charged in, Suigetsu swinging his sword and Jūgo using basic, but fierce taijutsu. The attackers were overwhelming Jūgo, but that was partially because he was spending a percentage of the fight taking deep breaths to keep his rage and adrenaline under control.

"Breathe...focus...relax..." he said to himself therapeutically.

"Hey big guy," Suigetsu interrupted, "this is no time for anger management!"

The swordsman of the mist swung his sword some more before resorting to different tactics. He fired water bullets at them both, which splashed to the ground before it reached them, of course. His attempt to drown them in a blob of water was equally useless.

"Yay! My turn!" Randamu shouted almost giddily as he leaped in front of the two ninjas and stared them down.

"All right scum bags, I've just got one question...Do you feel lucky?" He got in a defensive pose with his twin katanas, "Well do ya...**punks?!**"

Randamu charged in with his sword swinging, but the two ninja's easily dodged them. At one point, the male ninja even stopped the swords with his hands, then snapped them.

"Aw man!" Randamu whined, "why'd you have to go and do that?! Those were my favorite swords! ...Oh well, good thing I carry spares!"

He pulled two more swords out of thin air and reentered the battle again.

On the sidelines, the former Team 7 were analyzing the situation. They all remembered seeing something just like this before on the day that they all try to forget. They also remembered that, in the end, it was the three of them that had to do something about it...So would it be now as well.

"What do you think dobe," Sasuke turned to his best friend, "same plan as last time?"

"Why not?" Naruto responded...though in the back of his head something about all of this was getting under his skin.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" asked Sakura.

Naruto got his focus back and prepared himself. "Right! Lets do this!"

"Dad!" Shinachiku called out, "let us help!"

"No son, you stay here. You've been through enough for one day already."

"You too Sarada," Sasuke concurred.

With that, the three friends took off to the battlefield, leaving the two kids nothing to do but watch. But Sarada noticed something odd in Shinachiku's face.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah I'm fine. I'm just..."

"Just what?"

"...There's something funny about those two ninjas. I don't know why, but I feel like...like I know them somehow..."

Sarada was very confused about the boy's misplaced sense of deja vu...to the point that she almost missed the chance to see their parents together in action.

"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!" Sasuke yelled as he shot a wave of scorching flames from his mouth at the two ninjas. Both of them were able to dodge the flames, especially the male one.

'So far so good,' the Uchiha thought to himself.

"MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto produced about forty shadow clones, twenty for each ninja to keep them pinned. After some struggling, he got them restrained and pushed both of them up against each other so that his wife took take both of them out in one shot.

"Now Sakura! Now!"

"SHARRANO!"

Sakura charged at the two assassins, fists charged with chakra, and delivered a megaton punch that would surely obliterate them both...

...Or at least it would have. At the last second, the male ninja grabbed the female ninja's hand and, apparently, teleported them to another part of the island.

"WHAT?!" Sakura yelled in shock.

Naruto and Sasuke were just as speechless...Of course, it was too far away to see, but just behind the two shinobi there was a very familiar-looking kunai planted in the ground...

Naruto had had enough of this! He made several more shadow clones, each of which forming a Rasengan in their hands, and ran at his enemies.

"ULTRA-MANY SPIRALING SERIES SPHERE!"

The clones thrust all of the Rasengans at the two ninja but, somehow, they managed to escape.

At this point it became a two-on-one taijutsu match as Naruto fought both of them hand-to-hand. As blows were traded and blocked however, Naruto did notice that their particular fighting style was awfully similar to his own.

He engaged in single combat with the male ninja. Both of them took out kunais and slashed at each other in fury. Their movements were so fast that it was like a blur to the naked eye.

This battle continued for quite a while, until Naruto was finally able to land a cut on the male ninja's forearm, causing him to wince in pain for only a moment. It was long enough for the female ninja to take over the fight without missing a beat.

While Naruto could tell that her power lever was not the same at the male's was, she somehow seemed the more ferocious of the two fighters. There was a red-hot passion in the way she threw punches and slashed with her own kunai.

This battle also kept going for quite a while, until something happened...something that changed everything.

Naruto performed a flipping move to counter the woman's latest attack. In so doing, he ended up grabbing her mask and pulling it off of her as he flipped her.

Time itself seemed to stop as the woman got back up and faced the others coldly.

Everyone gasped. Even though most of them had never seen this woman before in their lives, they nevertheless knew exactly who she was.

Sasuke and Karin were stunned, as were their team and the rest of the Konoha 11.

Sakura's eyes went wide as he hand went to her mouth in total horror...and regret for the one she loved.

Even Shinachiku and Sarada were stunned, particularly Shinachiku, who was left stiff as a board at what he was seeing, tears actually beginning to form in his eyes.

But no one there was more stunned at this turn of events than Naruto himself. The orange-clad man looked at the face of the woman before him as if he had seen a ghost...because he had.

That beautiful face, those violet eyes now filled with hate, and that long, flowing crimson hair.

There was only one person this could be before him...and he simply could not believe it.

_"Mom...?!"_

* * *

Boom! Plot twist!

No, in all seriousness, a lot of you already called this in the comments made for some of the earlier chapters. Yes, those Taka bastards have brought back Minato and Kushina and, to even my own disgust, are using them as puppets to their own ends. The scariest part is...who knows how many other dead characters they've brought back?! Or how they are being controlled?!

Incidentally, I did some redefining of the green Chakra Gem this chapter in response to samuraipanda85's comment on last chapter that it seemed too overpowered before. That was pretty much the original idea, that if you hold one you effectively get a God-level power, but I decided he was right and a consequence and/or limit to it's use needed to be implemented. In fact, I'm thinking that there will be different advantages and disadvantages to each gem.

There were not a whole lot of references this time, but the big fight with the assassins and the ending with Kushina's unmasking were, once again, an homage to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" with that amazing fight scene with Cap and Winter Soldier in the street that went super fast and violent and ended with the Winter Soldier getting his mask ripped off to reveal Bucky Barnes.

Also, Randamu's "Do you feel lucky?" line was obviously an homage to "Dirty Harry," as well as a parody done of it in "The Mask," only instead of big, over-the-top cartoon guns, Randamu's just using his swords.

Jūgo's moment of focusing his anger with deep breaths and meditation was another of my equating his rage and anger issues with the Hulk, as Banner often has do do similar things to keep the Hulk at bay.

Randamu also references Mr. Wizard. I'll let you guys look that one up for yourselves.

I think that it for this one. I hope I've still got you all hooked, and I'll see you all again next time!


	23. Author's Commentary

Hey guys, thesaiyanjedi here. Sorry, no new chapter this time, but in the wake of recent events, I have some things I need to say.

This is going to be my personal commentary/rant on the events depicted/set up in the first chapter of Kishimoto's newest project _Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring_. For those of you who have not yet read the chapter, I implore you all to PLEASE stop reading this post until after you have done so, or at the very least read the summary of it on Narutopedia. I say this because, in order to get out everything I have to say on it, I WILL have to give away spoilers. You HAVE been warned...

...Still here...? Alright then...

The chapter is titled "Sarada Uchiha" and focuses, obviously, on Sarada. The chapter showcases her, now in her Part Two Sakura-esc wardrobe that she will be wearing in the upcoming _Boruto_ movie, feeling jealous of all of her friend's relationships with their fathers as they all train with their fathers for their upcoming graduation exam. Even Bolt is shown training with Naruto, a stark contrast to the already established dilemma of Naruto allowing himself to become too busy with his Hokage duties to spend must time at all with his kids, and Bolt becoming very bratty about it.

All of this makes Sarada sad and jealous because, as we find out for the first time, Sarada has NEVER met her father before in her life! We see her speak to her mother about this, and also whether or not Sasuke ever needed to wear glasses like she does. Sakura says she doesn't know (a lie I suspect), and it leads to a big argument where Sarada badmouths Sasuke for not being around and for he and Sakura having a very weird marriage, to which Sakura gets so mad that she destroys their house...the latest in what has apparently been several times.

As Sakura recovers from passing out (yeah, you read that right), Sarada returns home to gather some of their valuable belongings, and this is where the REAL spoiler comes in...once again, you have been warned...! Sarada finds the family photo of her parents has been cracked open and that the picture is actually a fake. The image of Sakura is really a separate photo attached to the real one showing that Sakura was really covering up another woman...Karin! Coincidentally, Sasuke appears to be returning home at the same time...

Wow! Where to begin with all of this?! I guess the first thing I have to say is that, despite being a NaruSaku fan, I do feel really bad for SasuSaku fans who must be feeling conflicted about this.

Secondly, I want to make something clear to my fellow NaruSaku fans as well...this is only an IMPLIED revelation at this time. We still have the entire rest of this series, however long of short that may be, to go deeper into it. In all likelihood, it is possible that Kishimoto is merely trolling with us again and the bit with the photo and Sakura's behavior may not mean what we all think it means...Or maybe it does, we'll just have to wait and see.

Furthermore, while this scene does put a dark ding on SasuSaku, it doesn't do much for NaruSaku either. At this point Kishimoto is trying his hardest to convince us that Naruto and Hinata are happily married and that there are no problems between them. We have yet to see a scene of adult Naruto and Sakura together, so their relationship at this point in their lives is not yet clear in canon. As awesome as it might be for a lot of us if this somehow leads to an unrequited feelings/affair arc for Naruto and Sakura, I doubt that this is where Kishimoto will go, especially after the B.S. excuse for a "closure scene" we NaruSaku fans were given in _The Last_.

I remember reading a comic of one of my all-time favorites series, _Avatar: The Last Airbender_, where the writer did something similar. The first part of the comic "The Search" ended on a cliffhanger with the implication that Ozai may not have been Zuko's real father, but then at the end of the third part, this was revealed not to be the case. I cannot say for sure whether Kishimoto is pulling a similar stunt, but we'll all just have to wait and see.

Now, having said all of that, if Karin really is Sarada's true mother, than I cannot help but feel an enormous sense of vindication for my own work! A lot of us fans have noticed for a while now how Sarada seems to bear a more direct resemblance to Karin than to Sakura, right down to the glasses, and I chose to incorporate that into "Shinachiku's First Adventure" and it's spin-offs. Lately, I have started having second thoughts on that decision, wondering if it would have made more sense to create an entirely new character for Sasuke and Karin's daughter...But now, I feel very proud of that decision.

It also seems to confirm a theory I had about Sakura and Sasuke's marriage in canon. Some time ago I made a Facebook post about how Sakura must have a terrible sex life because her husband is rarely ever home, and therefore the poor girl's needs are not being fulfilled. Now this chapter pretty much confirms that as we are told outright that Sarada have never met Sasuke, meaning that the guy is NEVER home. Unless she and Naruto really are sneaking off for some private time or Sakura has become a chronic masturbater (no intended offense to my female readers, I swear), I can't imagine her getting much of any happiness out of her marriage, especially if she has supposedly given up her medical career to be a stay-at-home mother to someone who's not even her own child!

I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret. I've been considering the possibility of a sort-of interdimensional crossover story for a while now...I have a plot device already set up within my current work that could make such a thing possible. Just imagine, Shinachiku and Bolt actually meeting and the Uzumaki and Uchiha families in my story encountering the one's Kishimoto established in the canon universe...The awkward moments write themselves! If this reveal of Sarada's parentage turns out to really be true, then it suddenly opens a lot of story possibilities for this idea and clears up a potentially massive plot hole it would have had otherwise.

As for whether this series will have any grounding on "Shinachiku's First Adventure"...I would say no. There might be a couple of things I'll consider going back in and tweaking like the characterization of some of the kids or adding in some newly established technology, but otherwise my plan is merely to continue with my own ideas.

But one more thing this manga chapter does that concerns me is what it does to the character of Sakura. I am dumbfounded at how much of a dump Kishimoto is taking on his own lead female character. The final batch of chapters from the actual series already tarnished all of the progression and growth she had received throughout Part II, and now we are told that she, presumably, is aware that she may be in a loveless marriage and is raising a girl who is not even her own daughter and has been hiding that secret from her this whole time... Wow...just...wow.

I'm open to talking more about this, so please instant message me or leave a comment. I'm sorry if I got all of your hopes up for a new chapter and instead disappointed anyone with this commentary/rant on this new development Kishimoto has chosen to give us, whatever it will mean in the long run.

Don't worry, I will still keep writing my stories so long as I know people like you enjoy reading them!

Until next time, have a great day, and long live NaruSaku!


	24. Chapter 23--Family Dynamics

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back once again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

In all seriousness, I want to apologize for the LONG delay in getting this one out to you all. My most recent fanfic, "A Surprise Inheritance," surprised me in how long it went for and as a result it kind of put this one on the back burner for a few weeks.

I was also busy going through a MAJOR editing period for ALL of my previous chapters for all of my stories to do my best to correct ALL of my spelling mistakes...which was no easy task, let me tell you!

But that's alright because I'm back now and ready to pick up from the cliffhanger where we left off from.

By the way, thank you all for the feedback on my author's commentary on the still developing plot twist of "Naruto Gaiden."

To be honest, I'm not even sure if this chapter represents me at my best, but I did the best I could with the ideas I had. I just hope you guys are about to get some enjoyment out of it regardless.

So, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 23: Family Dynamics**

_"Mom...?!"_

The crimson-haired woman said nothing as she flung another kunai straight at Naruto's head. The orange-clad ninja was so dumbstruck that it didn't even occur to him to try and duck out of the way. He would most certainly have been killed...had Sasuke not thrown another kunai directly in its path, thereby knocking both of them out of the air.

The one-armed Uchiha engaged in his own duel with the unmasked woman, while Naruto remained stuck in his paralyzed state. He could not move a muscle as Sakura was forced to get over her own shock and drag her husband to his feet. She was so caught up in this that she almost did not notice the male approaching them.

"FREEZE! Surrender yourselves or die!"

"Grandpa...?"

The masked assassin turned his head to locate the source of the voice. It came from none other than the twelve-year old son of his targets. The boy looked lost, almost in disbelief at him.

The assassin, however, did not hesitate and was set to throw a kunai directly at the boy...but he never got to as something came over his blonde target who then leaped in to save his son's life. Naruto struggled with the man in the mask, already knowing who could be the only person behind said mask...even if he _really_ did not want to believe it.

And so, with all of his effort, he reached for the man's mask amidst the struggle and yanked it off...

_"D-Dad...?"_

The assassin was an handsome adult male roughly the same age as the woman, one with bright blonde hair identical to Naruto's own and with the same captivating sapphire eyes. Anybody who ever read a history book on the Hidden Leaf Village could instantly recognize who this person was, but Naruto needed no such resource. Why would he...this man was his _father?!_

However, the male assassin said nothing as he broke free from the blonde's grasp by landing a powerful kick near his groin, followed by a deep kunai slash right across the chest.

"AAAAGGGHHHH!"

"NARUTO!" Sakura called out in fear.

"DAD!" Shinachiku followed suit.

Sakura, meanwhile, was still in battle with the unmasked woman, now revealed to be the late Kushina Uzumaki. Unlike his best friend, however, he was not unwilling to hold back on what he feared needed to be done. He gathered his chakra into his arm as waves of electrical energy built around it in an uncontrolled manner, the electricity emitting a familiar high-pitched chirping sound.

"ROAR! CHIDORI!" The Uchiha warrior was poised to thrust his attack into the woman, ending her threat once and for all...

**"SASUKE! STOP!"**

It was Naruto, still grasping his scarred chest in pain, yelling at the top of his lungs to beg his friend to spare his mother. Sasuke, against even his own better judgment, even though these two had attempted to kill them all, even though they were allied with Taka the enemy, even though there was no reason in the world for either of them to be here...he could not do it.

"Dammit," he muttered as he powered down his Chidori.

This, in turn, gave the woman an ample opening as she kicked Sasuke in the gut to get him out of her way before unleashing her chakra chains at her true target. Naruto had recovered enough to dodge the attack, but only narrowly. And when he did...

...Something happened. Something that dumbfounded every single one of them. One of the woman's chakra chains just missed Naruto and scrapped across his jacket, tearing it open as the chain actually came in contact with the chakra gem encased within.

The gem glowed with crimson energy and emitted a powerful, almost ethereal sound as it shot out a massive blast of pure destructive power. A beam of red energy shot out and missed the Taka assassins and all of Naruto's allies as it traveled in a straight line towards some of the ruins of Uzushiogakure. The beam completely obliterated everything within a three-mile radius, leaving absolutely nothing behind but a gigantic, smoldering crater! Anyone or anything that would have been caught within range of the gem's destructive power would have been instantly eradicated, no matter how powerful they were! This red chakra gem was like the power of a Tailed Beast Bomb weaponized into something one could hold in the palm of their hand!

Jaws were hitting the floor, all but the two assassins, who were amazed at the display of power, but on the surface appeared unphased regardless.

The gem had stopped emitting it's beam and was poised to fall into the water. Naruto was just quick enough to the snatch it out of the air and into his hand before it fell in or before—perish the thought—his own parents saw it and took it for their own.

Shinachiku was wide eyed in wonder. All of that power, all of that destruction...all of it was in the palm of his hands...The things he could do with that kind of power—

'What the hell am I _thinking!_' the boy thought to himself, scarred out of his mind at his growing fascination with this terrible thing he helped uncover.

He didn't have much more time to dwell on it however as the adults used this momentary distraction to gather the kids and, using smoke bombs and Naruto's Flying Thunder God Technique, made their escape from this place before the unmasked assassins could take notice of them.

The three summons remained, but before their human summoners left they thanks them all for their help and gave the great beasts instructions to follow, and to be prepared for if they will be needed again in the near future. And so, all nodding to one another, Gamakichi, Aoda and Katsuyu all dispelled themselves to return to their respective realms to warn the rest of their race of the great weapon that had been discovered.

Both the man and the woman could have sensed the group's chakra and followed after them, but they were too preoccupied to do so. Something about what they said to them had caught them off guard. _Mom? Dad? Grandpa?_ What did it all mean. It was as if something was amiss, like there was something far more to their target and his son than they had been told that they _needed_ to know!

...But who cared? They existed only to serve Taka, and Taka was about order and reconstruction! There was no time to dwell on the past, only to eliminate the loose ends that stood in the way of forging this world's future.

Two words passed through each of the adult's minds as they stared coldly at one another, _'Hail Taka!'_

* * *

The group reappeared far, far away from the coast. Naruto had planted a marker here as he and his group made their trek from the Hidden Sound Village. As soon as everyone recovered, some of them, still overwhelmed from the display of power that they just witnessed, they got their boundaries.

"Where are we?" Karin questioned.

"About 25 miles away from the coast," Sakura explained. "Naruto placed a kunai marker here as part of an escape plan in case we needed it."

"Nice way to think ahead dobe," Sasuke quipped, to which he got no response. "Naruto?"

The Seventh Hokage could not respond. His mind was lost in it's own little world...

'Mom? Dad? How are you...? What happened to you two?! What did those Taka bastards do to you?!'

"NARUTO?!" Sasuke yelled.

This snapped the blonde out of his thoughts and made him turn back to his best friend...all of his friends actually. Everybody was starring at him, some because they were expecting some sort of answer to what they just saw, but most of them because they were feeling sad for their leader.

"Naruto..." Hinata let out sadly.

"We...we are sorry old friend," that was the best possible comfort the usually upbeat and energetic Lee could offer as his wife Tenten held his hand and bowed her head.

Ino, Sai, Chōji and Kiba all looked terribly sad, and for one, so did Shikamaru and Shino as well. None of them had ever met those two people before, but they all knew who they were, especially after they all had read their story as told in Naruto's book. Several of them knew the pain of loosing a loved one, but few of them could imagine what their friend must be feeling right now.

The members of Sasuke's old team weren't sad so much as they were confused, since none of them really knew who those two people were they had just fought against...no one except for Karin.

'Lady Kashina...Lord Fourth Hokage...Naruto's parents...How...?'

No one dared make a move to approach the depressed blonde except for his beloved wife. Sakura knelled down and look her husband square in the eye. He was crying, and she knew why. And because he was crying, so was she.

He quickly wrapped his arms around her in a desperate hug, and she wrapped her own arms around him as he let out all of his grief into her buxom. She whispered sweet nothings and loving words into his ear soft enough so no one could here, along with her constantly saying of "It's okay" as she stroked her man's hair softly, her own tears staining her face as his did.

The Fourth Hokage was a hero, she had known that since she was a girl, and she was even lucky enough to get to meet him during the war. But ever since she had read her story and learned the real truth about her, Sakura had admired Naruto's mother. Kushina reminded her of himself in so many ways, as she had been told by others as well. She was strong, loving, hot-tempered, smart, beautiful, and in her eyes a true hero for making the ultimate sacrifice to save her son. She had always wished that she could have met her mother-in-law and now she had...in the absolute worst way imaginable.

Naruto was beginning to feel better as his wife hugged him and he cried into her chest. In fact, neither he, nor she, nor anyone else noticed as the Chakra Gem fell out of his hand and onto the soft grass...

...Until a twelve-year-old boy with blonde hair and green eyes picked it up and tucked it into his pocket.

"Mom? Dad?" the boy said getting his parent's attention.

"S-Sweetie?" Sakura said with tear-stained eyes.

"Was...Was that...?"

Naruto needed to compose himself as he dried his face and took a deep breath. "Yes Shinachiku, those people you saw...they were your grandparents."

"H-How? The forbidden reincarnation jutsu?"

"I don't know son...I just don't know."

Shinachiku could not help himself as he hugged both of his parents, completing the family unit, save for the still missing Hanami.

As Naruto savored this wholesome moment with his family, which thankfully none of his friends dared attempt to break up, his brain was spinning as now he had not one, not two, but three priorities that he needed to see resolved.

'Hanami, sweetheart, wherever you are, your family is coming to save you! Mom and dad, I don't know what's happened to you or why you're alive, but mark my words I _will_ save you! And after all of that, we're all going to save our home; we're taking the Leaf Village back! That's a promise of a lifetime!'

* * *

"I think you'll all be comfortable here."

Hanami and her friends were in the Kazekage's own house. It wasn't the palace that Hanami's own house was, but it was very nice, homely and well kept, likely one of, if not _the_ best house in the Hidden Sand Village. It was single storied, had a couple of extra bedrooms, and the usual amenities one would expect from a private residence shared by only two people.

Kankurō and Sunako were giving the kids the guided tour of the house, including showing them where they would be resting. Unfortunately the limited number of bedrooms meant that all of the boys were going to have to bunk together for at least one night, while Sunako had agreed to let the girls share her room. In other words, it was going to be like one big sleepover.

"My brother says that you kids are free to make yourselves comfortable and even help yourselves to some food if you wish," Kankurō said. "But I need to insist that none of you set foot off these grounds until our, err, situation can be resolved...Oh, and _please_ try not to break anything."

"Uncle," Sunako asked, "should we attempt to make contact with Hanami's parents via their phones to let them know—?"

"No, that's a bad idea," Shikadai interrupted. "If Lord Seventh and his wife are on the run then Uragi's probably got intel tracking any open lines of communication hoping that they'll slip up and make just such a mistake. If they turn on their phones, it'll just get them into more trouble than they already are."

"I'm impressed nephew," Kankurō said with a smirk, "you're quite perceptive for a boy your age, kind of like your old man." Then the puppet master frowned and got on one knee, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders. "I promise you kid that we'll find a way to get your mom and my sister out of wherever they're keeping her."

Shikadai looks upset, but he wasn't about to cry. "I know."

Kankurō stood back up and addressed all of the children. "Well, I have to get back to work. Sorry to have to leave you kids like this, but Sunako can help you with anything else you need. Like I said, make yourselves comfortable, but don't forget that all of you are guests in the Kazekage's home, so no shenanigans! Understood?!"

"HAI!" all of the children said in unison.

With that, the middle child of the Sand Siblings left the house, closing the door behind him.

After Kankurō left each of the kids got busy entertaining themselves in their own respective way. Some of the boys sat down on the sofa and watched television while others started looking through the fridge and the cupboards for some snacks. The twins let their two dogs, Akamoro and Akamiri, run around the back yard to stretch their legs...and hopefully they didn't leave any 'presents' back there for the poor Kazekage to find later. Some of the girls went straight down the hall to see Sunako's room where they'd be staying, that and to have a little girl talk...assuming Sunako was the kind of girl that was into that sort of thing.

The one member of the group that couldn't bring herself to relax was Hanami herself. She was pacing around the house not getting any rest because she had too much on her innocent young mind.

"Take some rest," Inojin advised, "you have had an eventful day and we're safe here."

The pink haired girl looked up at the blonde-haired, white-faced boy. "I can't help it, I'm worried about my mom and dad and—"

"And Shinachiku?"

"Hai, I want my onii-chan."

"Shinachiku will be back, do not be afraid Hanami!" It was Burandon who came up to them and offered the girl those enthusiastic words of comfort, compete with his father's signature nice guy pose.

"A-Arigato," she said.

"You really love him, don't you Hanami?" Tsuki said as she listened in, most of the other kids now joining them.

"H-Hai. Shina's always been looking out for me. I-I remember one time when Shino-sensei took some of us on a field trip to the local farmland's just outside the village. I slipped and fell in a pig pen, I got all muddy and dirty and all the other kids laughed at me until..."

"Until what?" asked Chōchō.

Hanami smiled sweetly, "...Everyone laughed at me until Shinachiku jumped into the pen with me. He played with me in the mud and didn't care if the other kids laughed at him, he just wanted to make me feel better. Shina may gets on my nerves from time to time, but he really is the cooled big brother in the whole world!"

"Wow..." Tsuki said entranced, "I wish my brother would do something like that for me."

"Hey!" Ōkami shouted annoyed.

"That was so sweet," Chōchō said with stars in her eyes.

"You two do certainly have a bond, there's no denying that," Inojin reasoned.

"Yosh! The Springtime of Youth lives on in the hearts and souls of the Uzumaki siblings!" Burandon proclaimed.

Bagu, for the latest in who knows how many times by this point, only responded by looking over at the green clad Genin in annoyance and replied, "What he said."

It was the lady of the house, Sunako, who put a comforting hand on Hanami's shoulder. "Your brother will return to you Hanami, along with your parents. I'm certain that wherever they are they are looking for a way to find and rescue you right now."

The girl wiped the gathering tears out of her eyes and smiled. "Arigato Sunako."

Something occurred to Shikadai in that instant. "Speaking of which, I just thought of something. I know I just said that we can't call them on their phones or anything, but sooner or later her parents are going to look for her and when they do the Leaf Village is going to be the first place they look. How are they ever going to know to look all the way out here?"

"Well, genius," Ōkami answered rudely, "didn't you think of that when you suggested we come here in the first place?"

"...No, I have to admit that was one detail that slipped my mind."

"We can all worry about that later," Sunako said. "Right now I suggest we all get some rest."

"Agreed," Inojin said. "Who knows, perhaps tomorrow we can try something to find Hanami's parents and bring them here with the Chakra Gem."

"I would have to get permission from my father first," Sunako said, "and even then we'd need to find their location first. But as I said, we can figure all of that out tomorrow. So let's get some rest...unless anyone has any more questions?"

Chōchō raised her hand, "I've got a question...what's for dinner?"

* * *

"So what do we do now?"

Naruto was broken out of his touching family hug and brought back to reality as he heard his best friend speak up. "What do you mean, 'What do we do now?'"

"Naruto," Sasuke began, "I realize what you just went through, but whatever the reason is for your parents coming back to the realm of the living, they are still a threat to us now. If we don't do something they'll find us again sooner or later and—"

"And _WHAT?!_" Naruto was angry, and neither Sakura nor Shinachiku liked it. "What would you have me do Sasuke? Just put down my own parents without trying to save them first, like how you almost _killed_ my own _mother?!_"

"I stopped myself, didn't I?!"

"So you admit that's was what you were going to do, huh?!"

"You were overcome with emotion Naruto! Those assassins were a genuine threat! I was making a judgment call, and if I have to, I'll make it again! But I stopped myself instead; do you know why?"

"Please, enlighten me?"

"Because you're my friend! Because hearing your cry for me to stop made me think back to that day, that day that ruined my life forever! The day I came home to discover my own mother, father, and my entire clan laying in pools of their own blood. Now there I was about to do the same to you. I didn't want to be the one who took away your family the same way Itachi took away mine, especially after I was the one who almost got your son killed. So don't you **DARE** yell at me dobe! **Understand?!**"

Naruto was speechless. it had been a long time since he saw Sasuke get this angry at him. Hell, just a few hours ago their roles had been reversed and he had been the one yelling at him! But either way the blonde knew that he needed to get himself under control and make things right.

"Sasuke...I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. You could have killed them but you didn't...Thank you."

The one-armed Uchiha took a deep sigh and barely, just barely twisted the corner of his lip into a smile. "Forget about it dobe. In another life, I may have lost control myself."

Sasuke then did something very unexpected, and fairly awkward sine he clearly did not have much experience at it. He stuck out his one remaining hand to offer up for a handshake.

Naruto looked at the hand, then up at his friend, then down at the hand again before he smiled and shook his brother's hand, a symbol of their bond and of their forgiveness.

"Sasuke..." Sakura said standing up and letting go of her son, "I...I want to apologize too. I was just...well, Shinachiku was—"

"It alright Sakura, really. If anything I probably deserved it anyway."

It was then that Shikamaru decided to break up this little scene. "I hate to spoil the moment, but Sasuke did ask a legit question earlier. What _are_ we going to do now?"

"Indeed," Sai added. "Lord Fourth and Lady Kushina are a complication, but they only seem to be a cog in this much larger Taka machine. We have no way of knowing where young Hanami is right now and all of us getting back into the village would be suicide without a well thought-out plan."

"Yeah," Shino joined in, "and we can't just call up Hanami to speak to her since they're no doubt tracking all phone transmissions right now...Wait, you _did_ remember not to use your cell since you left the village, right Naruto?"

"Come on guys, give me some credit! Sakura and I haven't turned our phones on since we left the village. I'm not _that_ stupid!"

"Still, you do worry us sometimes," Kiba quipped, earning him an elbowing from Hinata. "Ow!"

"Hey! Aren't we all forgetting something here?" Ino asked sarcastically. "Y'know, like that big red beam of death we saw back there?!"

"Yeah, what the hell was that?!" Chōji exclaimed.

Hinata was at a loss as she recalled that horrific display. "It—It was like a tailed beast's power being let loose out of nowhere. Like—"

"Like you're holding a god's wrath in the palm of your hand," Naruto finished.

Sasuke remembered a quote he had read from an ancient myth they had all been taught at the Academy during their youth. "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

As the weight of those words sank in for all of them, Naruto subconsciously looked at his hand that currently held the great weapon they now had in their possession, knowing full well the disaster it would pose for the Leaf Village, nee, the entire world should Taka ever get their hands on it.

Only one problem...the gem wasn't _in_ Naruto's hand!

The Seventh Hokage was alarmed, he panicked, he was terrified all at once. Everyone watched as their friend and leader fumbled around in his jacket and pants like a madman, looking over the ground as well.

"Naruto what's the matter?" Tenten asked.

"It's gone!"

"What's gone?" Lee asked.

"The gem! It's gone! I grabbed it out of the air and held onto it as we teleported here and now its **gone!**"

**"WHAT?!"** everybody shouted.

"You idiot!" Sakura yelled as she clobbered him on the head, just like the old days. "How the hell could you loose something like that?! Don't you know what that thing can do in the wrong hands?!"

"Of course I know Sakura!" Naruto said as he rubbed his head. "I swear I don't know what could have happened!"

Karin was panicking herself, "This is bad, this is really, _really_ bad!"

"Dude, we are _screwed!_" Suigetsu exclaimed.

"I...yeah, yeah we are screwed," Jūgo was forced to admit.

Randamu folded his arms, "The Chakra Gem of the Uzumaki clan is gone? I've heard of guys loosing their family jewels, but this is ridiculous."

Naruto was not in a good mood right now. "Guys! _Please!_ Not helping!"

Sasuke had his head in his hand as was gathering what self-control he had to keep from screaming his lungs out. "Dobe! Let's just stop and think this thing through for a second. I want you to think _really_ hard Naruto. Where was the last place you saw the Chakra Gem?"

Naruto took a deep breath and went over everything he knew. "Okay look, after Shinachiku gave the gem to me I immediately tucked it into my pocket and zipped it up to keep it safe. Then, during the fight, one my m—_the assassin's_ chains nearly hit me and tore through the pocket the gem was in. It must have touched it, which is why we saw that explosion before. Before we teleported I saw the gem stop emitting power before and about to fall into the water but I grabbed it out of the air just in time. I should have had it in my hand right now."

"Are you _sure_ that you didn't miss? Are you _sure_ it didn't fall into the ocean?" Shikamaru questioned insistently.

"I'm positive! _Gah!_ What the hell! This doesn't make any sense!"

"Naruto!" Sakura called out, her husband actually flinching a bit after the vicious head beating she'd just gave him. "Listen I'm sorry I hit you, really I am. But you've got to admit that loosing a weapon of mass destruction—"

"I _know_ honey! I'm not happy about it either! Why do you think I'm panicking right now?!"

"R-Right. Sorry again. But listen, if you're sure that you had the gem in your hand while we teleported, then it has to be around here somewhere. So lets all just focus ourselves and start combing the area to see if we find something."

"She's right," Sasuke added. "I don't think you're lying or that you're wrong dobe, so we can't leave here until we find that gem all over again."

Shikamaru, as Naruto's ever-loyal adviser, took a deep sigh and turned to all of their friends. "All right everybody, you heard the man. Its gonna be a _massive_ drag, but we've got to search this area top-to-bottom until that red gem of death is found."

With a few groans from some of the others, as well as a couple of annoyed glares in Naruto's direction, the group started combing the forest for the missing Chakra Gem.

Meanwhile, Shinachiku was staring at all of this as he felt inside his pocket. He himself had picked up the gem after it fell out of his father's hand, and yet at no point did he ever come forward to put the adult's minds at ease. He still carried it and, for reasons even he didn't understand, felt compelled to keep it hidden...keep it to himself...all to himself.

"Shinachiku?" Sakura said, causing the boy to turn in his mother's direction. "Did you or Sarada happen to see where the gem was?"

'Do I tell her? Do I hand it over? ...Why should I? You remember what the old man said; even the purest heart can be corrupted by its power. And besides, you saw what kind of power it has! ...No, no its better that it stay with me. _I_ was sent here to find it, the gem is _my_ burden. _Mine! My own!_'

"Shinachiku!" Sarada yelled to the blonde-haired boy standing next to her, "your mother just asked you a question!"

"H-Huh? W-What?" He looked back at his mother who was looking at him with concern.

"Are you all right sweetie?"

"Y-Yeah, I' fine mom, really. And no, no I haven't seen the gem ever since I gave it to dad back at the Hidden Whirlpool Village."

"Oh...okay. How about you Sarada?"

The raven-haired girl with the red trim glasses looked over at the boy next to her in suspicion. Something was off about him, she didn't know what, but something was _definitely_ weird.

"N-No Aunt Sakura, I didn't see anything either."

"Well alright then. Both of you come with us to help look for the gem. Remember to let us know the moment you find something."

As the two kids walked towards the others, following the pink-haired woman, Shinachiku Uzumaki felt the inside of his pocket, his fingers running along the surface of the tiny jewel he possessed in an almost caressing manner.

'Its safe with me. They're all safe as long as it stays with me. Its mine...mine...'

Nobody noticed a very faint red glow that came from the boy's pocket for a brief instant before going away again, or the brief flash of red that was in the pupils of the boy's eyes.

_'...Mine!'_

* * *

Well, there you all have it, yet another chapter is in the can! I hope all of you enjoyed it.

I'm going to pull back the curtain and confess that I almost totally forgot that I still had the three summons in the scene. As I plotted out the fight with Minato and Kushina I realized that I really didn't have much for them to do, and having Naruto teleport them along with all of the the others seems silly, so instead I gave them what I figured was a decent enough excuse to get them out of there for, hopefully, a much more satisfying use later. Sorry about that...remember what I said about how this one may not be my best work?

You may have noticed a lot of talk about the characters using cell phones all of a sudden. This was my integrating a recent reveal that Kishimoto did in his current "Naruto Gaiden" series where, coinciding with the apparent technological revolution that the village has seen since the end of the war and the events of Chapter 700, telephones were finally invented and along with them cell phones. This was an idea I ultimately decided made enough sense that I decided to go with it, so if you go back and re-read some of the previous chapter you will notice that I added in a few lines justifying why characters aren't just using their cell phones to make their lives a lot easier...Yeah I know it's me pulling a George Lucas on myself, but hey, there are way worse things I could have done.

There weren't a whole lot of key references here, but I will point out two key ones. First, the story Hanami tells about how Shinachiku went out of his way to humiliate himself just to cheer up his sister was directly lifted from episode 21 of "Digimon Adventure," one of my favorite anime series from my youth. In that episode Kari tells the exact same story to Koromon about how she fell in the pig pen and Tai jumped in to stop the kids from laughing at her. I'm not sure I realized it until now, but I think I based a lot of Shinachiku and Hanami's relationship on the one Tai and Kari shared in that first season (still the best, at least in my opinion).

By the way, I just recently saw the trailer for the upcoming "Digimon Adventure tri." I'm super stoked for it! Seriously, that first season of Digimon was something I was HUGELY into in middle school and a big reason for who I am today. Those original eight characters and their wide variety of digimon partners and the broad adventure they were given to save two worlds at once just connected with me in ways that the later seasons didn't quite measure up to, that includes season two, which actually had some elements that really upset me as a fan...Fourteen years later and I'm STILL angry that the writers chose to pair Sora up with Matt instead of Tai! Or that nothing ever happened between T.K. and Kari! Seriously what the hell?!

But that brings me to something I've been curious about. Anyone who knows about this "tri." series of films coming out (yes it is going to be a six film series instead of a TV anime), it this just going to be a direct continuation of season two (or 02 if you prefer the Japanese title), or should I anticipate some retconning to take place that will fix some of the more criticized aspects of that second season? I don't think it's mere coincidence that none of the four characters introduced in 02 (Davis, Yolei, Cody and Ken) are being included here (so far as the previews are telling us) and instead this is being sold as a reunion for the ORIGINAL series only. Just some food for thought...P.S. Taiora forever!

Okay, now that I've gotten all of that off my chest, the second reference this time was with Sasuke's haunting line "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This one is actually a real-world historical reference to a quote made by Professor J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1965, in description of what he felt in 1945 after witnessing the successful detonation of the atomic bomb at Trinity Site, the very weapon of mass destruction he himself helped to create as part of the Manhattan Project. He was quoting a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Hindu Bible, where Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says the line. Oppenheimer remarked that everyone working on the bomb must have thought they'd become Death himself, one way or another.

In case you didn't get the symbolism from reading the chapter, the power of mass destruction that the red Chakra Gem is revealed to have is being equated to a mere non-jinchūriki mortal unleashing the power of one of the Tailed Beasts. In terms of a real world comparison, it it essentially the Naruto-verse equivalent to holding an atomic bomb in the palm of your hand. Anyone familiar with Japanese history will know the profound significance that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese people that lasts even to this day and how that experience could not help but root it's influence into their art and media. The theme of atomic or nuclear destruction appears time and again in anime and other Japanese entertainment; heck, Godzilla himself was originally created as a living manifestation of the bomb's destruction.

Sakura loosing her temper and hitting Naruto was, I felt, a good place to give us a taste of the old Naruto and Sakura dynamic even after all their years of marriage.

Lastly, Shinachiku's behavior this chapter...yeah, it's getting a bit creepy isn't it? You may recall in Chapter 20 the old man warned that even those with the purest of hearts could be corrupted by the gem's power...I'll let all of you think that over at your leisure.

Well, I think that's all I have for this time. I hope you all enjoyed it, and until next time, see ya!


	25. Chapter 24--The Things We Loose

Hey everybody! thesaiyanjedi is back with yet another chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

Now I have to confess that compared to some of my other chapters, this one came out REALLY short. I apologize for that, but hopefully you guys can all get something out of this anyway.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 24: The Things We Loose**

Uragi Rimonō sat in his office in Konohagakure. He was contemplating his current situation and what would need to be done to resolve it. The Seventh Hokage and his wife were yet to be confirmed eliminated, their son was still unaccounted for, as was the weapon he was sent to collect, and their daughter was still missing. Furthermore, there was still no confirmation of success from either Captain Odaku and his team nor from his two 'special agents.' There had been some success in the arresting of his secretary Shizune and her old master Lady Tsunade, as well as Kakashi Hatake and his conspirators, but again, the Seventh's daughter was still a rogue element and there had yet to be any report of her whereabouts in the village...Come to think of it, he recalled being told something about several Genin from his village vanishing as well.

Suffice to say, the Interim Hokage was _not_ in the best of moods.

However, the older man was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on his door.

"Enter," he said with little emotion.

The door opened and in stepped a tall man in a dark hooded cloak, yet underneath that cloak one could tell that this man possessed a bulky frame. Uragi actually did put on a smile upon seeing him.

"Ah, old friend, it is good to see you." Uragi sat up in his chair and reached for one of the drawers in his desk. He pulled something out of it and closed the drawer, keeping his fist tight around whatever he was holding. "I wanted to congratulate you on your success in apprehending those fugitives. I realize that bringing in Lady Tsunade may have been difficult for you..."

The stranger suddenly started shaking his head, as if he were coming to reality again after some sort of dream. He instinctively made a move to go for something in his belt, but then Uragi opened up his hand to reveal something to the stranger's gaze. The cloaked stranger made eye contact with something that was giving off a bright bluish light. It was an almost hypnotic light...enchanting...entrancing...alluring...commanding...

"Just to be clear, there _weren't_ any problems in capturing Lady Tsunade, _were there?_"

The stranger stood upright and pulled his hand away from his side. The then removed his hood to reveal his face. The face was that of an old man with waist-length, spiky white hair tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face. He also had red lines that ran down from his eyes and a wart on the left side of his nose. His eyes briefly glowed blue before returning to normal once again.

"No," the man responded, "it was not difficult. I am here to serve Taka, nothing more."

Uragi grinned after closing up his hand once again, "Good, very good. So how may I be of service old friend?"

"I have come to report to you that there has been no word yet from the Fifth or Sixth Hokages concerning the location of the girl...I have also wanted to ask about the current hunt for the Seventh."

"What about it?"

"Lord Uragi, would it not have been wise to send myself to recover Uzumaki and his family?"

"Getting sentimental, are we old friend?"

"Not at all sir, it's just that with my talents and experience with the target—"

"I assure you that I have complete faith in the one's I have trusted this mission to. You ought to have faith as well; after all, you trained one of them yourself."

The man widened his eyes only slightly, "You mean...?"

"I do. Minato and Kushina will handle the job, I have little doubt of that. And if they can't, then something inside me says that they will have a second chance." Uragi narrowed his eyes at his visitor, "As for you, I need you here with me now to help deal with internal matters, at least until the upcoming Kage Summit."

"Have the other four Kages all agreed to your invitation my lord?"

"It doesn't matter if they agree with it or not; this is an official meeting of business and they have an obligation to attend...But yes, they have all sent replies back to me...all except for the Kazekage."

The older man nodded in understanding. "Understood sir. Will there be anything else?"

"Not for the time being. Master Jiraiya, you are dismissed."

The formally deceased Sannin bowed. "Arigato Lord Hokage."

As the Toad Sage exited the office, Uragi leaned back in his chair and looked down at the item that was in his hand. He opened it up again and took another glimpse of the prize he possessed. It was a small blue gem, one emitting a powerful blue light, one that could captivate, and influence, the minds of whoever beheld it...even the dead.

He closed his hand up once again and put the gem back into his desk drawer.

'Two in our possession already, one that the Uzumaki boy will locate for us whether he knows it or not, and four more that are unaccounted for...Better progress could be made, certainly, but even with only three, Taka can still bring this world the order that is needs.'

The village's leader could have dwelled on his order's master plan even more, but at the moment he had paperwork that needed to get done.

* * *

At the Kazekage's home, the children were all getting ready for bed. Gaara had called to let Sunako know that he had clocked out for the day and would be coming home soon.

When he got back home he was greeted by all of the children, except for a still timid Hanami. But the former jinchūriki shared some kind words with the little girl to get her to loosen up a bit.

Gaara went ahead and picked up some dinner before coming home...Ramen, to try to make Hanami feel as comfortable as possible. The owner of the restaurant was curious why he was picking up so much food for just him and his daughter, but he merely said that he was going to be entertaining some guests tonight.

After dinner, the kids all thanked the Kazekage for the food and for welcoming them all into his home and then they all went to their respective living quarters.

As the girls all gathered in Sunako's room they laid out their futons on the floor to get some rest. Sunako had even offered to let Hanami use her bed for the night, but she insisted that it wasn't necessary.

"Are you sure Hanami?" the auburn-haired sand mistress asked. "I really wouldn't mind, especially not after everything you've been through."

"No it okay, really. Its your room and I don't want to impose too much."

As the girls got settled into their futons, something came to Chōchō's mind. "Hey Sunako, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Where was your mom? How come she didn't join us for dinner tonight?"

The girl tensed up at that question, but only somewhat. Like her father she did not overreact and only someone paying very close attention would notice any change in her demeanor.

"She...died...a long time ago."

The room got very uncomfortable, _very_ fast.

Chōchō tried to apologize as quickly as possible. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean—"

"Its alright," Sunako replied. "Like I just said, it happened a long time ago."

Tsuki dared to press the issue further, "H-How did she...?"

Sunako took a deep breath, "She died giving birth to me."

The other girls all gasped as their new friend continued her story.

"I really don't remember too much about it. My father tells me that I was born prematurely. He says that she died the same way my grandmother died giving birth to him...But he also says that she left a piece of herself behind that would always be with me and protect me."

As the girls all listened to this, Hanami remembered something her dad once told her about Sunako's dad from when they were children. So also saw the small gourd of sand that sat there on the sand ninja's dresser.

"We're sorry Sunako," Tsuki said, "we didn't know."

"Its alright. Honestly my father doesn't speak much about her either...Lets just get some rest."

After Sunako turned out the light, the four girls settled into bed and went to sleep, but before doing so, the young pink-haired girl found herself thinking about the same thing that had been on her mind constantly for the last few days.

'Mommy...Daddy...Onii-chan...where are you...?'

* * *

"Damn it Naruto! How the hell could you have dropped that thing?!"

"I don't know! Okay Kiba! I've been racking my brain around it this whole time and it makes no sense to me!"

"Kiba," Shikamaru interrupted, "complaining about it isn't going to solve anything okay? Lets just stay focused on finding the gem so we can start coming up with a plan."

"Yeah," Randamu agreed, "let's hurry up and find our McGuffin so we can get the hell out of here!"

The entire company of Jōnin stopped what they were doing and stared at the masked ninja in confusion.

"Our _what?_" Tenten asked incredulously.

"Y'know, our McGuffin. Its a old storytelling cliché; some vague thing of great wealth or power that almost always goes ill-defined that all the parties in the story wants for some reason or another. The Dragon Balls, One Piece, the Ark of the Covenant, the Death Star plans, Rosebud, the One Ring, Aladdin's lamp. I can list a million of them!"

The group only continued to stare as Randamu explained himself before Ino spoke up. "But Randamu, that's just in a story. We're talking about real life."

The masked man, instead of looking at the platinum blonde, turned his head to the side as if he were, once again, speaking straight into an invisible camera. "_Suuuurrree_ it is, right readers?"

"Who the heck do you keep talking to?" Chōji questioned.

Randamu tuned back to face the chubby, bearded ninja. "If none of you already know, then none of you are deserving of the answer."

Everyone was at a loss for words, until Lee, sort of, spoke for all of them. "I fear that this overly cryptic and mockingly unyouthful response may be too much even for my brain to comprehend."

Shikamaru just sighed, "Whatever! Lets just get back to work."

The company had been searching the forest for what felt like hours now. Ever tree, every blade of grass, every hole in the ground, every place imaginable was searched top to bottom but there was simply no sign of the missing Chakra Gem. Even Sasuke's Rinnegan and Hinata's Byakugan could not locate it anywhere.

As the adults all searched their own sections of the forest, Sarada Uchiha couldn't help but notice something was peculiar about her friend and partner. He was looking like everybody else was, but he seemed not to have his full attention on their task. He appeared to be glancing over the grass lazily looking for...whatever.

She also noticed that his eyes looked glossed over, unfocused, and also that he kept putting his hand in his pocket a lot. He was feeling something, she could tell.

'Wait a minute!' Sarada thought in alarm to herself, 'What the old man said down in the cave...the gem can...'

Sarada narrowed her eyes behind her glasses as she looked at the blonde-haired boy in the orange jacket and black shorts. "Shinachiku?"

The raven-haired girl's voice caught the boy's attention. "Yeah?"

"Why do you keep feeling inside of your pocket?"

The boy suddenly got a bit nervous, "What do you mean?"

"I've been watching you. You don't look like you're looking for the gem as hard as the rest of us are and you've been putting your hand in your pocket an awful lot since we got here. Are you hiding something?"

He made a move for his pocket before he pulled his hand back again. "No..." Then his eyes narrowed in an almost overly stern and mean manner. "...And even if I was it wouldn't be any of your business anyway!"

The girl was shocked. _Never_ in all the years they'd known each other had Shinachiku ever been so rude to her...She didn't like it, **at all!**

But on the plus side, it did seem to confirm what she suspected was going on.

"Uncle Naruto! Aunt Sakura! Come here please!"

Shinachiku looked very distressed, 'What the hell is she doing?! Why is she calling them over here?!'

The couple walked over from where they were looking and came up to the two children.

"What is it dear?" Naruto asked the girl. "Did you kids find something?"

"Maybe..." Sarada then made her move and reached into Shinachiku's pocket to pull something out of it.

"Hey! What the heck are you doing Sarada?!" Shinachiku shouted trying to stop her, catching the attention of the other adults as well.

"Sarada!" Karin shouted, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Sorry mom, but I think I found something that you need to see."

"And just what is that young lady?"

"THIS!"

She successfully pulled something out of the boy's pocket. It was none other than the red gem that they have spent this entire time searching for.

"Shinachiku!" Sakura shouted in shock. "Where did you get that?!"

The boy snatched it away from the girl and put it back in his pocket again. "Its not important."

"Sweetie," Sakura began, "if you found that thing than why didn't you—?"

"I said its not important!"

Sakura looked taken aback, and also hurt, by the way her own son just lashed out at her.

"Shinachiku Uzumaki!" Naruto yelled in anger, "Don't you dare yell at your mother like that! Now hand over the gem and apologize right now!"

"Make me."

The blonde man's eyes widened in shock and all of the other adults, particularly the women, all gasped at what they just heard.

"Young man, _what_ did you just say to me?!"

"You heard me, I said make me! I found this thing, not you! Its _mine!_"

"Kid," Sasuke interjected, "I don't know that the hell has gotten into you, but you'd better hand that thing over right now or—"

"Or _what?_ You think I'm afraid of you Uncle Sasuke?

The Uchiha clan survivor narrowed his eyes in irritation. "You damn well should be!"

"Look Shina," Shino said putting his hand up, "you're obviously not well right now. Your parents are all just trying to help you. I think its for the best that you—"

"Shut up and mind our own business Shino-sensei! _I_ found the gem! _I_ brought it with me out of that cave! You've all seen what it can do! I have to keep it safe! I'm the only one who can!"

The boy then pulled out a kunai and pointed it at the entire group. "And I'll take down **anybody** who tries to take it from me! Its mine! My own! My pre—"

The boy never got the opportunity to finish his sentence before he felt a pressure on the back of his neck. A sharp pressure that he had felt once before from his own godfather. But that was not the source of the blow this time.

As the boy fell to the ground loosing consciousness, the adults could all see clearly that the one who did this to him was none other than Sarada...and she was clearly not happy with herself for having to do it.

As the boy was passing out, a very faint red tint left his eyes before they closed. While he was down, Naruto went over and opened his unconscious son's hand, taking the gem away from him. He looked at it in disgust for only a second before looking back to his son.

Sakura was on the verge of tears again. What had this thing, this powerful, terrible thing done to her little boy?

Naruto exchanged eye contact with his wife for only a moment, but which felt like an eternity to the two of them, before he lightly put a hand of the girl's shoulder without even looking down at her. "Good work Sarada."

He then turned to all of his friends. All of them were looking at him in shock and worry, both wanting to know what was going on and what was to be done about it.

He did not like was he was about to say, but what choice did he have? Dear God! His own son had just threatened him and all of his friends!

"Bind his hands," the former kage said in barely a whisper.

Sakura fell to her knees and cried her eyes out as their friends bound her son's unconscious hands behind his back. Her husband could not even look in her direction, only hang his head in shame.

Sasuke wasn't feeling much better as he looked at the unconscious boy and thought about his sudden obsession with the artifact that was in his possession...and how he would never have come into contact with it in the first place if he hadn't brought him along on this damned mission!

'How do I keep doing it? ...How do I always manage to fuck _everything_ up?'

Sitting down on the grass not far from the boy was Sarada. No one noticed as a single tear fell from her eyes and was soaked into the forest floor beneath their feet.

* * *

There you have it! The drama and stakes just keep ramping up!

The title "The Things We Loose" was my attempt at summing up the fates of several characters in this chapter. Jiraiya (and by extension Minato and Kushina as well) loose their freedom because of their manipulation by Taka. Sunako, as we discover, lost her mother the very day she was born. Hanami, likewise, has lost contact with her own family and wishes to see them again. And Shinachiku...well lets face it, he kind of looses his sanity in this one!

Most of you have already figured out that the mysterious person that traumatized Tsunade upon her seeing him was none other than Jiraiya, so after the Minato and Kushina reveal, I figured now was as good a time as any to make that official.

Also, now we know how Taka are keeping them under their control...with yet another Chakra Gem, this time one with mind control abilities! Lets not forget, this is only the third gem we have seen so far and there are at least seven in total.

The reveal of Gaara's wife and Sunako's mother being dead was, admittedly, a bit of a convenience for my part because I had trouble deciding on a love interest for Gaara. So I figured why not leave him as a single father and parallel the death of Gaara's wife with that of his own mother? Its tragic, I know, but at least its interesting.

Randamu is back making in joke references again! We've all understood that the Chakra Gems are the McGuffins of this story, and we also know that creative fiction in all forms abuses this trope to death. But how many stories can you think of where the characters actually refer to the things they are looking for as McGuffins right there on the page or on the screen!

Okay, now lets talk about the REAL drama in this chapter! Yes, all of you called it, Shinachiku's almost drug-like desire for the Chakra Gem's power was very much an homage (or ripoff) of "The Lord of the Rings." I see him more in a Bilbo or Frodo capacity in this instance rather than him ever reaching full-blown Gollum-level addiction.

I'm sure a lot of you may have been uncomfortable with Shinachiku's temper and actual lashing out at his own parents this time, but it was to prove how dangerous holding such power can be if you are not prepared to handle it.

Lastly, the choice to have Sarada be the one who knocks Shinachiku out after he outright threatens to kill the others if they try taking the gem from him was inspired by an episode of "Teen Titans" (the _original_ series, NOT "Teen Titans Go!"). The episode in question is called "Haunted", where Robin is, well, haunted by visions of Slade (or Deathstroke if you prefer) appearing before him and either threatening the city or beating the crap out of him. None of the other Titans can see Slade and doubt that he is even real. It all builds up to a second act that ends with Robin outright yelling at his team and threatening to kill them if they get in his way of stopping Slade...which finally forces Starfire, who usually has his back better than anyone, to fire her star bolts at him and knock him out cold before he can hurt them or himself.

I think that's all I've got for this time; sorry again if the chapter was short, but I hope you all enjoyed it.

Until next time, see ya!


	26. Chapter 25--Land of Confusion

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back yet again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I always feel the need to thank you guys for sticking with this story throughout all of it's delays and development; you guys truly are the ones that make the whole thing worth it!

That being said, I should warn you up front that this chapter is going to be very different than previous chapters. You'll find out why as you read it, but be warned that it gets pretty heavy and dark as it goes on, especially at one point a little over two thirds of the way through.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 25: Land of Confusion**

It was in the wee hours of the day that Uragi Rimonō finally finished his paperwork for the day and was at last ready to retire. Clocking out, he left the office and made his way to the Hokage residence, former home of the first six kage's until the Seventh refused to take up residence there in favor of living in his family's colossal estate.

That home...a symbol of the Hokage's opulence...his arrogance...his corruption and inability to relate to the common man.

'Uzumaki...They call you the savior of the world...You call yourself the one who will end the cycle of hatred...What a fool you are! You want to protect the world, to save it, but you're not doing what needs to be done to change it. As long as the Kage system exists...as long as this ninja world exists, there can never be peace.'

As he made his way back to his residence, Uragi noticed some of the looks that the villagers were giving him. For every look of respect they gave him for his current rank and authority, others scolded him for everything that has happened these last few days. After all, his decision to put the entire village on lockdown following the Seventh's escape has put a lot of ninja families out of work.

'Soon...soon they will all understand. The Seventh Hokage, the Fifth Kazekage, the Fourth Tsuchikage, the Sixth Mizukage, the Fifth Raikage...ALL of them shall be the last of their dynasties, and with them gone Taka can finally start this world anew. Taka can show them the true path to peace, to order. Soon we will be ready to dig our hands in and clear away the filth that this world is too blind to see with it's illusion of peace and love.'

He at last made it back to his home. Uragi hated using this place, but it was necessary to keep up the Hokage image until the time was right to change things. As he put away his stuff and unwinded, he poured himself a glass of sake and sat in his chair.

He allowed his mind to drift to days past. He remembered a time when he was much younger than he was now. It was the day he left the village in search of whatever it was that he had been missing...

* * *

"Well, I suppose this is it."

An old man with long white hair tied in a pony tail and wearing a horned forehead protector with the kanji for 'oil' on it looked at the black-haired man before him now.

"Uragi," the old man said, "are you sure that you need to do this? Wouldn't you at least like to stay until after the Chūnin Exams?"

"I'm afraid not Jiraiya. I can't explain it, but I just don't feel like I belong here right now. I feel like something in this world is out of whack...Like something's missing. And I know that I'm not going to find the answers here in Konoha."

"Well be that as it may, I've secured arrangements with the Third so that you may be able to pick up and reclaim your place as a shinobi and citizen whenever you should return."

"I appreciate that old friend." Uragi hesitated for a moment because he was fully aware what was on the Toad Sage's mind. "I want you to know that you don't need to worry about me, alright? I promise that I'm not going to end up like Orochimaru."

"I'm hope not, for your own sake."

"Oh by the way, have you heard from Tsunade lately?"

The old man glared at the Rimonō in annoyance, "Uragi, you know full well that I haven't spoken to her in years. Loosing her brother and her lover was just too much for her so she took Dan's niece and skipped town."

"I'm just saying, I know how much she meant to you..."

"There's no sense in dwelling on the past, all we can do is learn from it so we may forge a better future."

Uragi grinned, "Truer words have never been said." As he was about to leave, the black-haired man stopped again as he remembered something else. "In speaking of the future, have you gotten in touch with the Fourth's son yet?"

"Naruto? No not yet...I get the feeling that we'll cross paths soon enough though."

"Are you planning on telling him the truth when that day comes?"

"...No."

Uragi looked shocked. "But Jiraiya, they were his parents—"

"Which is exactly why I think its better he doesn't know yet, not until he's ready."

"I don't understand."

Jiraiya sighed, "I've heard rumors about that boy; he's loud, stupid, impatient, a bit arrogant, and he's desperate to prove himself. If all of that is true then that kid's got a long way to go before he's mature enough to know the truth about who his parent's were. And my instincts tell me that his sensei feels the same way...Besides, the Third ordered that the boy's heritage be kept a secret anyway, for his own safety."

"...Maybe...Still, it seems cruel to have to keep a child's own heritage a secret from him. Just to be clear, you do plan on telling him _one_ day right?"

"When he's ready for it, yes."

"...Oh well then, I guess I'd better get going. What are you going to do now Jiraiya?"

The old man suddenly got a very perverted expression on his face. "Well...I was thinking of stopping by the bath house to get in some research for my next book."

Uragi merely groaned and shook his head. "You know, one of these days your perverted actions are going to land you in some really hot water. Well, see you later."

With that, the man left the village of his birth with no clear idea of what the future held for him or where he was going the find the answers he sought. All he knew was that his answers were somewhere out there, and his soul would never be at piece until after they were found...

* * *

It was months later, and Uragi was renting a room for the night in a small inn near the Hidden Cloud Village. He was sitting at a table eating his meal when he heared some sort of commotion going on at a nearby table.

Curious, he decided to walk up to the group of complete strangers as they were having their discussion. "Excuse me gentlemen, but what exactly are you taking about?"

One of the men turned to face Uragi and replied, "Beat it."

"Hey! That wasn't very nice," the other man said as he turned to look at Uragi. "I'm sorry about me friend here, he's a bit drunk."

"It's quite alright. So what were you two talking about, may I ask?"

"We were talking about the rumors that have come out of the Leaf Vilalge recently."

Uragi raised an eyebrow, "What rumors?"

"Word has it that the Uchiha kid betrayed his entire village to join with Orochimaru."

Uragi's eyes widened, "What?! Why?!"

"Rumor is that he wanted to gain more power to get back at his brother for wiping out his clan."

Uragi's overreaction softened at that. 'Of course, how could I forget that night?! It was the worst tragedy the Leaf has had to endure since the Nine Tails attacked...Itachi Uchiha, Anbu Black Op, pride of the Uchiha clan...the man who ruthlessly butchered his own family in cold blood. No wonder that boy wanted revenge, but to turn full traitor, especially to go to scum like Orochimaru...'

"Hey buddy! Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry about that. My mind kind of zoned out for a second there. Thank you both for your time."

"Whatever," the drunken man said. "Now get lost."

* * *

It was years later, two to be precise, since Uragi left the village and he had learned of Sasuke Uchiha's betrayal. He was wandering the western borders of the Land of Wind, trekking through the dunes of sand.

He was struggling just to keep his eyes open amid all of the dirt and sand that was blowing in his face, making it a challenge just to walk, yet alone see.

And then he did see something. It was a shape in the distance that he could barely make out, but it resembled the form of a man. A tall man with a fit-yet-thin form that looked like he was wearing some sort of cloak. A cloak with red clouds printed on it.

The stranger approached Uragi amidst the sand storm and spoke coldly to him. "What brings you out here stranger?"

Uragi did not know if he should reply, in fact, it was probably wise that he didn't. But there was something about this man that made him feel as though he could be trusted, something almost hypnotic in his eyes...

"My name is Uragi, and I have come from the Hidden Leaf Village in search of answers."

"And to what questions do you seek the answers to?"

"...I do not know. I suppose...to why the world is such a mess."

"A mess?"

"Yes. My...my parents were both killed on a mission outside of the village when I was just a boy...killed by my own uncle. Many of my friends were killed by the Nine-Tailed Fox when it attacked the village. One of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru, betrayed my village to gain power, and now the last of the Uchiha clan has chosen to join him all just to get revenge on his brother. I cannot make sense of any of it."

The stranger merely stared at the black-haired man before him with no expression before his spoke again. "Perhaps you and I should have a talk."

The sound of a bird squawking could be heard overhead. The two men looked up to see a large hawk circling them in the air, as if it were looking for it' latest prey.

"Funny thing about hawks," the stranger said, "they can be some of the most savage hunters in the animal kingdom, but once domesticated they can also be your closest friend. Someone once said to me that when they take flight on their mighty wings it represents the wings of change. There's another name that some call hawks by also...taka."

"Who...Who are you?" Uragi asked this in the slightest bit of intimidation as he only now noticed the short red hair and the disturbing piercings that adorned the stranger's face.

"My name is Pain, and I am of the Akatsuki."

"...Never heard of it."

"Then we clearly should have a talk. I have a vision for this world that perhaps you would be interested in. Perhaps you may even be willing to consider me a friend."

Uragi hesitated, "I-I should let you know that I don't trust people easily...And I don't take well to treachery either."

The man who called himself Pain extended his hand. "Do not be timid. I can promise you that I will not betray you..."

* * *

"That bastard!"

Uragi was in a run down apartment in the Hidden Stone Village, getting drunk on bottles of cheap sake, one of which he threw against the wall of his apartment, breaking the glass and sending shards all over the floor.

'He gave me his word! He said he had a plan to make the world a better place! He never said anything about destroying the damned village! He never proposed GENOCIDE! I could _never_ become a monster like that! NEVER!'

He threw another empty bottle against the wall, shattering it as well. He then slumped in his chair and sobbed. Pain's near-destruction of the village was not the only reason he was so depressed...He had heard another rumor too. Pain had betrayed his trust and killed one of his few friends, and it was a friend he wasn't even especially close to as it was.

'Jiraiya...old friend...I'm sorry. If I somehow had known...I would have killed that Akatsuki bastard right then!'

There was a loud bang on the door. "Go away," Uragi yelled.

"Stop throwing things against the wall and I will," a voice outside the door said. Uragi recognized it as his current landlord.

"What do you want?" Uragi shouted rudely.

"I want to know why you are wrecking one of the rooms under my lease, _that's_ what I want! And if I don't like your reasoning, I might just have to throw you out of here smartass!"

Uragi groaned, loudly, as he got up and opened the door, revealing his ticked-off landlord on the other side.

"If you _must_ know," Uragi said in drunken sarcasm, "I'm throwing bottles against the wall because I'm pissed off. And I'm pissed off because someone I once thought was a friend nearly wiped out my home village."

The landlord looked at his tenant is shock. "You...you've gotta be kidding me! You're telling me you're friends with the Pain guy that just wiped out the Leaf Village!"

Uragi sat back down at the table and poured himself another drink. "Sort of...as much as I ever allow myself to become friends with anybody."

"Well," the landlord began, "than you might be happy to know that the red-headed bastard was killed by a Leaf ninja."

That revelation snapped Uragin to full attention. "What?! Who?! Was it the Fifth Hokage?"

"No."

"Well then it had to be Kakashi Hatake; I can't think of anybody else that would have been powerful enough."

"No, actually it was some genin who did it."

"A _genin_? Defeat _Pain_? That's impossible!"

"Hey, its what I've heard! They say the kid's name is, um, what was it? Naru-something. Uzu-something else I can't remember—"

"Naruto Uzumaki," the black-haired man said in realization.

"Yea, that's his name! How'd you know?"

"Another friend of mine talked to me about him once...Thank you sir, I feeling better now, and I sorry about any damage I may have done to the room."

"Bah! Don't worry about it! Just try not to break anything else in here alright!"

With that, the landlord left and Uragi was left alone in the apartment to contemplate his own thoughts.

'Come to think of it, Jiraiya did talk to me once about some crazy story he heard once. Something about a 'Child of Prophecy' that would one day rid the world of the cycle of hatred...Maybe that's it? Maybe that's the answer? Maybe Naruto is the one! Maybe he can finally wipe this world clean of the cesspool it has become.'

He was about to take another drink, but he decided against it, instead leaning back in his chair with a smile. "Minato, you should be proud of your son. He is going to change this world in ways you can't imagine."

* * *

It was a mere days later that Uragi had heard yet another rumor coming out of the Leaf Village. It concerned a certain two-faced elder and the leader of a secret organization called Root.

His name was Danzō Shimura, and he was an embodiment of everything that Uragi hated. He was old, scheming, obsessed with power, and had his hands in pretty much everything bad that went on inside the Leaf. Often his moves for gaining power came at the expense of everyone else, and Uragi hated that.

Uragi would never, **NEVER** become a monster like that...!

The stories he had heard were that Danzō was killed by the traitor Sasuke Uchiha, whom Danzō had personally come to kill for his crimes rather than allow him to be taken back to the village to stand a fair trial.

'What do you know,' Uragi thought, 'I suppose I owe that Sasuke kid something after all...Maybe things can finally get back on the right track? Maybe this is a sign that the world is finally heading towards a better place?'

* * *

War! It was a word that everyone in the world hated and feared whenever it was uttered. Over the course of this world's history it has seen no less than three world wars fought between the five great ninja villages, and now it had seen yet another.

For Uragi Rimonō, the Fourth Great Shinobi War was a big fat slap in the face to every, EVERYTHING that he wanted to see this world grow and become! The only difference was that this time, instead of the five nations at war with each other, this time it was all five of them fighting together to stop some all-powerful threat in the form of those bastard Akatsuki.

It should have made him feel better, but it didn't. Death was death. A lot of families had lost loved ones. A lot of villages lost some of their heroes. Loss...nothing but loss.

And the worst part? At the heart of all of it was the so-called 'Child of Prophecy.' Naruto Uzumaki not only fought in this war but, apparently, he was one of the main reasons that war was fought at all!

'What a waste! What **arrogance!** What **stupidity!** What a **complete disregard** for one's destiny! That boy was meant to bring an **end** to this world's suffering, not **aid** in it!'

The stories that came in after the end of the war claimed that after some nonsense about defeating an ancient rabbit goddess, the blonde-haired young man and his former black-haired friend, Sasuke Uchiha again, had fought at the Valley of the End, for the second time supposedly, and each of them came out of that battle loosing an arm.

'Good! Let that be a lesson to both of those little shits! Whether you betray your village or betray your destiny, traitors all deserve to be punished...!'

...But they weren't. Not long after the war ended and all of the ninja returned home, Uchiha was apparently acquitted of his crimes and went back out into the wilderness again as a free man...and it was all thanks to Uzumaki's support of him! The blonde-haired brat even got himself a brand new arm out of it too, one grown out of Hashirama's cells. And to top it all off, that Nine-Tailed hell spawn got himself promoted to Chūnin without ever taking the fucking exam, got together with some pink-haired harlot that used to be all over the Uchiha boy, and now was living out of some **stupidly** lavish house, no, **palace** that he inherited from his parents!

And did he deserve any of it? **NO!** In truth, Naruto Uzumaki represented everything that was wrong with the world today. He coasted through life, he climbed a ladder of violence and death, all the while claiming to be some great hero, and now that he's gotten what he wanted he indulges himself in his own success at the total expense of everyone else!

Naruto was a fraud! Plain and simple, that boy was a fraud...'Child of Prophecy' indeed...

...And yet something else about that battle was weighing heavily on Uragi's mind. Uchiha had apparently plotted to bring an end to the world's cycle of hatred himself. Only he had someone directly to blame for it all...The Kages, **all** of them!

'The Kages make the world what it is. As long as the ninja system exists at all, the cycle of hatred, the cycle of violence and death care never hope to end.'

This had been on Uragi's mind for hours. Uchiha may have been a no-good traitor and a criminal, but for once a criminal's words made sense to him.

He needed to get out of where he was currently staying, and soon! He needed to see more of the world. He needed to know first-hand what the world really was coming to now that the war was over and what kind of world, what 'new era of peace' Uzumaki was working to create...

* * *

...What Uragi found over the last several months was almost the exact opposite of peace.

Scratch that, peace was alive and well, supposedly. None of the ninja villages were angry with one another. Friends were made among all sides, there were even a few intermarriages popping up.

Yes, politically everything was fine...On the streets, on the ground level however...that was a different story. What he saw, once he looked past the sunshine and rainbows and all the happy families, was that there was still an under layer of crime, theft, discord, murder, rape... _Evil_, just plain evil.

At one point, Uragi had picked up a newspaper and read a story that changed everything forever. It was a story about a man who never knew his family as they were murdered soon after he was born. The man was taken in by a godfather that taught him the ways of the ninja, but who would get drunk and abuse him in horrible ways that would make anyone who heard them sick to their stomach. So it was for years, until finally, the man, who was merely a boy then, was forced to kill his own godfather in self defense.

The boy grew up into a man, a fierce warrior that thrived on death, representing everything he hated. And so he traveled alone until he made friends with a band of traveling mercenaries whom took him in and became his friends, especially their leader. It was while among this group that he met a woman and fell in love, ultimately leaving the mercenary life to settle down and start a family.

And so his role in this world's cycle of death would come to an end...Until that terrible day when the mercenary leader went mad and betrayed his old friend by storming into his home, beating the man to a pulp, pinning him in a trap from which he was unable to escape, raped the man's wife and then murdered both her and their children...Then when it was all over, he merely left the man to wallow in his own grief...

...The man took his own life within the hour...

When Uragi had read that story, he had had enough! **More** than enough! He was not going to live in a world where such evil could exist, where such disorder could lie just beneath the surface of this so-called 'era of peace.'

This world, and all the people in it, all the powers, all the governments, it was too much. Too many men, too many people, too many problems, and he could see little love in any of it. Instead, all it left him with was confusion...confusion...

_I must have dreamed a thousand dreams__  
__Been haunted by a million screams__  
__But I can hear the marching feet__  
__They're moving into the street_

_Now did you read the news today?__  
__They say the danger's gone away__  
__But I can see the fire's still alight__  
__They're burning into the night_

_There's too many men, too many people__  
__Making too many problems__  
__And not much love to go round__  
__Can't you see, this is a land of confusion?_

_This is the world we live in__  
__And these are the hands we're given__  
__Use them and let's start trying__  
__To make it a place worth living in_

_Ooh Superman where are you now?__  
__When every thing's gone wrong somehow__  
__The men of steel, these men of power__  
__Are losing control by the hour_

_This is the time, this is the place__  
__So we look for the future__  
__But there's not much love to go round__  
__Tell me why, this is a land of confusion?_

_This is the world we live in__  
__And these are the hands we're given__  
__Use them and let's start trying__  
__To make it a place worth living in_

_I remember long ago  
Ooh when the sun was shining  
Yes and the stars were bright  
All through the night  
And the sound of your laughter  
__In the wake of this madness  
__As I held you tight  
__So long ago_

_I won't be coming home tonight_  
_My generation will put it right_  
_We're not just making promises_  
_That we know, we'll never keep_

_Too many men, there's too many people_  
_Making too many problems_  
_And not much love to go round_  
_Can't you see, this is a land of confusion?_

_Now this is the world we live in_  
_And these are the hands we're given_  
_Use them and let's start trying_  
_To make it a place worth fighting for_

_This is the world we live in_  
_And these are the names we're given_  
_Stand up and let's start showing_  
_Just where our lives are going to_

And so here he was. Uragi Rimonō was poised to take his own life, out on the very same desert lands where he had met Pain years before, only to experience one of a myriad of betrayals in his life.

But that didn't matter anymore. Nothing did. Uzumaki, Uchiha, all of them! They could keep this disorderly world. He was done with it!

And so he held the kunai up to his throat and thrust it forward...

...Only it never made contact. His arms were being held back.

He looked up to see a hooded figure preventing him from making his escape from this world.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the stranger said.

Uragi was furious, "Go away! Leave me alone!"

"You're lost. You have so much to live for. You have seen life for what it really is and because of that you can effect real change."

"Don't! I have been betrayed too many times in my life already!"

"I have not come to betray you Uragi Rimonō. I have come to make you an offer."

Uragi relaxed long enough to put the kunai down and stare at the hooded stranger in suspicion. "Are you from the Akatsuki?"

"No. I come to you as a friend, something you seem to be in short supply of it seems."

"What do you want from me?"

"I represent an organization, one that is neither loyal to any of the Allied Shinobi Nations nor are enemies of any of them."

"So what are you then?"

"If you require a classification of some kind, think of us as a secret society. We exist in the shadows, influencing things from within. We are working to bring the established order down from the inside, beneath even the five kage's blind notice. We are hatching a plan to finally bring about that change, to establish a new world order as it is meant to be, to bring discipline to all of the chaos..." The stranger smirked beneath his hood, "...Something that Naruto Uzumaki has utterly failed to do."

The utterance of that name sent a cold shiver down Uragi's spine. "And just how do you plan to do this?"

"There are...relics in this world. Powerful relics that date as far back as the dawn of the ninja age itself but which history itself has forgotten. It is by finding them these that we will hatch our plan. We have leaders and agents that we are planting throughout all of the five great hidden villages, and we believe that _you_, Uragi Rimonō, would be perfect to lead our infiltration of Konohagakure."

Uragi had to admit, this stranger, whoever he was, had captured his interest. "And what are these 'relics' exactly?"

"I'll show you."

The stranger held out his right fist, palm facing upwards, and opened his hand to reveal a strange blue gem, one that glowed with a hypnotic blue light. It was entrancing, beautiful, and it was seriously getting into the black-haired man's head.

As quickly as Uragi saw it, the stranger closed his hand up again, snapping the deeply troubled man out of whatever stupor he had just been in.

"Do you understand now?"

"Yeah...What was that thing?"

The stranger spoke again. "The key to changing this world, one of seven. Together, we will all set the mighty bird free and take flight on the wings of real change.

The hooded stranger then brought his right fist into his chest in a sort of salute. "HAIL TAKA!"

Uragi remembered that word. It was said by one who had betrayed him years ago, but the metaphor he had used still stuck with him regardless.

He was not a monster, he was a revolutionary. He would not take his life today. Why would he when he was destined to bring about real change not only for the Leaf Village but for the entire world?

Facing the stranger and grinning like a madman, he stood straight and stiff and brought his right fist into his own chest. "HAIL TAKA!"

* * *

It was a year since the end of the war and at the gate of Konoha, a hooded stranger came into view. The two security guards, Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, stopped the man dead in his tracks.

"Halt! Who goes there?" Izumo demanded.

"Uragi Rimonō."

_"Who?"_ Kotetsu asked in confusion.

"I am a former resident of this village that left on a quest for enlightenment shortly before Orochimaru's attack and the unfortunate death of the Third Hokage. Master Jiraiya, rest his soul, made arrangements so that I may be able to pick up the remnants of my old life if I should ever return."

"And why have you returned?" Izumo asked.

"My quest is done and I have seen the world for what it is. I am at peace now and I am ready to return home."

The two shinobi looked to each other before turning back to the man. Kotetsu spoke for them, "We think that it is for the best that you take this up with Lord Hokage sir. Please follow us and we will escort you."

"No need, I can still remember the way to the Academy. I look forward to speaking with Lady Tsunade."

"Actually sir," Izumo corrected, "Lady Tsunade retired from her post a year ago. Kakashi Hatake is the Hokage now."

"Oh really?" Uragi asked surprised. "That is news to me. Very well then, I will see him at once then. Thank you."

Several minutes later, Uragi had arrived at the Academy and approached the front desk where the Hokage's personal assistant, Shizune, sat.

"Excuse me m'lady, but I would like to have a word with the Sixth Hokage if you don't mind?"

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but the guards at the front gate said that in order to renew my residency here it was best that I take my business directly to the Sixth."

"Oh...alright. What is your name sir?"

"Uragi Rimonō."

"I'll let the Hokage know you are here. Please take a seat."

"Thank you my dear."

It was only a few minutes later that she came back and told Uragi that the Hoakge would see him now. He climbed up the staircase and knocked on the door to Kakashi's office.

"Come in," the former Copy Ninja said from the other side. The door opened and the black-haired gentleman stepped in. "Uragi I presume?"

"Yes m'lord. I am—"

"I know, I know. My assistant told me your name and one of the front gate guards informed me in advance of why you were here."

Uragi chuckled, "Leaf Village Ninja always were expedient."

Kakashi leaned back in his chair, "You know, Master Jiraiya was a good friend of mine, and he brought up once that he had a friend who moved away from the village on an enlightenment quest...but he didn't say much else." He eyed the man in his office suspiciously for only a moment, "It is an honor to finally meet you sir."

"Arigato Lord Hokage."

Suddenly, there was another knock on Kakashi's door. "Come in!"

The door opened and in stepped a young man, about eighteen years old, with short blonde hair, blue eyes and three whisker-like markings on either side of his face. He wore a pair of orange pants, black sandals, a black jacket with orange trim, and a black Leaf Village headband. His right hand was completely covered in gauze bandages.

"Kakashi-sensei, I came by for my latest mission briefing..." The young man then noticed the other occupant in the room. "Oh...hello?"

Uragi had to fight to hold his lunch down at the sight of the person before him now. There were so many things that he wanted to say to this boy...But no, if this plan was going to work then it was going to require patience..._lots_ of patience. For right now, good old fashioned manners and the fine art of deception were required.

"It is a pleasure to meet you young man."

"Naruto, this is Uragi Rimonō, a former resident of this village that has returned after six years. Uragi, this is—"

"That's alright Lord Hokage, I know _exactly_ who this is."

Uragi noticed a curious, somewhat clueless look on the boy's face...yet another thing that irritated him now that he was standing in his presence.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Uragi began, "I've heard a great deal about you while traveling the world. You seem to have made quite a name for yourself."

The blonde jinchūriki rubbed the back of his head and grinned, "Well, I try not to brag but—"

"I was a friend of Master Jiraiya. As his final student and the son of the Foruth Hokage, we all expect great things from you young man...I would be an honor to consider you a friend of mine as well." He stuck out his hand and Naruto, in total ignorance, shook it and smiled.

"Thanks, it was great to meet you too sir!"

'Look at him,' Uragi thought. 'That ignorant smile, that blissful demeanor...This fraud doesn't deserve to lick the dust off my shoes!'

The two men let go of each other's hands and Uragi bowed to the Hokage. "Lord Sixth, Naruto, I bid you farewell."

As he left the office he could hear Naruto and Kakashi getting down to their own business. There was also some comment made about Uragi's polite manners, but he couldn't have cared less about any of that. But as he went down the stairs to the exit, he noticed a young shinobi about Naruto's age sitting in a chair rather impatiently. He had a youthful yet rugged face for his age and had dark brown hair and eyes.

The shinobi noticed Uragi looking at him. "What do you want?"

"Oh nothing, don't mind me. Are you here to see the Hokage?"

"Yeah, but I doubt it'll matter any."

"Oh? What does that mean?"

"The old man hardly lets me do any missions anymore. And I'm good, I _know_ I'm good! Hell, I could probably make Anbu if given the chance! But _no_, instead he keeps seeing that Uzumaki guy all the time..." It was only then that the shinobi realized what he had just said. "Oh God! I'm sorry! _Please_ don't tell Lord Sixth that I said that!"

Uragi grinned slightly, "Its quite alright. My lips are sealed."

The shinobi relaxed somewhat, "Y'know, sometimes I wonder if anything we do here is really making a difference or not. I mean, we're only a year after a major war, but there's still crime and other crap out there to deal with. I wonder...I wish I could know for sure whether or not we were really doing anything to make any real change."

Uragi looked at the young ninja in interest. "What is your name son?"

The young shinobi looked at him, "Odaku."

"Well Odaku," Uragi said grinning as he placed a hand on the young man's shoulder, "I think you and I should have a talk..."

* * *

All of that was a long time ago, and now here Uragi was in the Hokage's residence, of all places, fulfilling his role as the time for the pending revolution was underway.

Of course, there were still the loose ends of the Seventh, his wife, their children, the Uchiha, and all of their allies that needed to be dealt with...Come to think of it, there were a _lot_ of loose ends left to deal with.

But no matter! That would all have to be tomorrow's problem. For now, it was time to rest after a hard day's work and look forward to the Kage's Summit.

'Soon, very soon it will finally be time. All the waiting, all the filth, all the chaos, all of it will come to an end soon.'

As Uragi laid in his bed and prepared to sleep, he said two words aloud, words that he has been saying in private company over and over again for years and now, on the brink of victory, meant more than they ever did before. "Hail Taka."

* * *

There you go! That concludes another chapter!

I realize that this was probably not what a lot of you were expecting, but in the interest of good storytelling, I felt that it was something that I would have to deal with at some point, that being the origins and motivations of our villain. So, much like how I devoted Chapter 11 entirely to fleshing out all of Naruto and Sakura's friends and kept them and their son out of it entirely, I decided that the best way to flesh out Uragi's story arc was to just devote the whole thing to it's own chapter.

Frankly, I'm not even sure how well it came out as I had to figure all of this out on the fly as I wrote it. I hope I got his downward progression down and how he kept looking at all of the wrong things which blinded him to how much better the world really was now...Or is it any better? Consider that debate fuel to do with as you please.

I warned you that things were going to get really dark about two-thirds of the way through, and what material gets darker that rape and suicide?! I want to say right now that both of these topics are extremely serious and it was never my intention to make light of them in ANY WAY whatsoever! I hope that this chapter, somehow, can serve as a cautionary warning against such behavior in our society or inspire others into action or intervention if they personally know someone who is currently going through, or whom then even suspect is going through, either of these issues.

Incidentally, the horrific story that Uragi read about in the newspaper was inspired by the origins of Guts from "Berserk." If you've ever read that series or seen the anime (or even watched the recent Guts vs. Nightmare episode of "Death Battle") then you'd know just how dark and horrific Gut's back story is and what unforgivable things Griffith did to him. And in a world where such evil things like that can happen, is it really any wonder why Taka believes that a new world order is required?

It has been a long time since I included another song in this story, and this time I chose quite an unconventional one: "Land of Confusion" by Phil Collins and Genesis, later covered by Disturbed. I love the original Genesis version of this song, especially the unforgettable music video done with the puppets from "Spitting Image" (even though I fully admit that it might be nightmare fuel for some folks), and the Disturbed cover with it's own video animated by Todd McFarlane (yes, the same Todd McFarlane who founded Image Comics and created Spawn) is a terrific track as well.

I do realize that I have perverted the original intention of the song to a certain extent. Both the Genesis version and the Disturbed version were meant as anthems against governmental corruption in one form or another. Here, it still serve taht purpose, except that they guy thinking these things just happens to be our VILLAIN!

Oh yeah, and in case you didn't catch it, the day that Uragi first left the village was meant to be the same day that Naruto and Jiraiya first met, hence his reference to heading to the baths to do 'research.'

That's about all I've got for this time. I hope you all liked it, and if you did please feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time, HAIL TAKA!


	27. Chapter 26--Apologies and Strategies

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi's back again with the next chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Wow! I cannot thank you guys enough! Thanks to you I've officially broken the 100 favorites mark! I don't think I ever could have seen that happening. You guys are the best!

As for this week's chapter, I did my best to offer up a stark contrast to the previous chapter by working to make this one a lot more touching, optimistic, and at one point even funny. I hope it comes across that way.

So, with that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 26: Apologies and Strategies**

"Ugh!"

It was with a groan and momentarily blurred vision that Shinachiku Uzumaki awoke from his slumber. He could not remember much of anything, much less why he fell asleep in the first place.

And then it came back to him like a ton of bricks. 'The gem!'

He tried to spring himself up, but found that he could not. He looked down to find that his hands and feet have been tied up, leaving him stuck lying on the ground.

'What the heck?'

The boy turned his head straight and found his parent's friends—Aunt Ino, Aunt Hinata, Sai, Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee, all of them—were standing around discussing something, but they were too far away for him to make out any of their words.

He turned his head another direction and saw three members of his uncle's team—Suigetsu, Jūgo and Randamu—were standing together and that Suigetsu punched Randamu in the face, probably for making a really bad joke of some kind.

He could see everyone who was with him before, except for the five people he wanted to see the most...Plus, he wanted to know about...

"Looking for something?"

The boy recognized the voice instantly, but he was not happy with the way it sounded. He turned his body around, which required rolling around in the grass, to look behind him to see his mother and father sitting on a log. His father had his arm around his wife's shoulder as they sat together. Sakura had a very sad, almost heartbroken look on her face, while Naruto...he looked angry..._really_ angry!

Shinachiku was old enough to know when his father was in a bad mood, and based on the glare the jinchūriki was giving him, the poor boy was in **big** trouble!

Even worse, his Uncle Sasuke was sitting on the same log with his Aunt Karin, and the one-armed Sharingan master looked no less happy. Karin looked sad, not as sad as his mother was, but sad nevertheless. Sitting next to the couple was Sarada, who was trying to avoid the boy's gaze, almost as if she was feeling guilty about something.

'What the heck happened to me?'

Finally, the boy's father spoke up again. "Do you have anything you'd like to say young man?"

"D-Dad? What's going on? I don't understand—"

"CUT THE CRAP!" Naruto yelled, catching everyone else's attention. "You're tied up right now because you threatened me, your mother and everybody else here if any of us touched that damned glowing stone of yours! I don't know what the hell came over you, but you had _no right_ to talk that way, _especially_ not to your mother! You owe her and everybody else an apology _right now_!"

The boy was stunned. He _threatened_ his mom?! Why would he ever in a million years...

...And then it all came back. _All_ of it! The secrecy, the anger, the yelling, him pulling a damned kunai on his own family...And for what? Some glowing gem that he helped find at the bottom of the ocean?

"M-Mom?" he said desperately, trying to get the woman's attention. Sakura turned to her son, fresh tears forming in the corners of her eyes as tear stains had already stained her cheeks from not long before.

Seeing his mother like this broke the poor boy's heart. He hated seeing any of his family angry or sad, and knowing that he was the one responsible for it made everything worse. He had to fix this, **now!**

"Mom! Please?! I'm sorry! God, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say all those horrible things! Please forgive me!"

"Then why did you say them?" Sasuke interrupted coldly, directing the boy's attention towards him.

"It was the gem, all of it was the gem. W-When we were down there in the cave, the old man warned us that the power of the Chakra Gem may corrupt someone, even someone with a pure heart. When I held it..." The boy seemed lost in thought as everyone stared at him waiting for an explanation. "All that power, all that...There was something about all that power that made me feel special, made me feel big and important—"

"What it made you was a big fat jerk!"

Shinachiku turned his head to see the one who shouted at him...Sarada.

"G-Gomen Sarada...And thank you."

"For what?"

"For knocking me out before I did something that I would have regretted for the rest of my life."

The raven-haired girl with the red-trimmed glasses turned away from him, not willing to let him see how much it meant to her to hear his apology and, judging by the tone in his voice, to mean every word of it.

The boy turned to all of the others, some of whom, like Ino and Hinata, looked at him in sadness, others like Lee, Tenten and Chōji looked concerned, and others like Shikamaru, Sai and his old teacher Shino were outright scolding him.

"Aunt Ino...Aunt Hinata...Shino-sensei...you guys...I'm so sorry you all had to see that. I swear I'll never loose my temper like that again!"

"It's okay Shina," Hinata said, "you weren't yourself."

"Nobody's blaming you kid," Shino said. "Sarada told all of us what the old man had said to you while you were knocked out...Still, you need to understand that the gem's influence made you say some pretty awful things. It was making you very hostile and very dangerous."

Naruto had to interrupt at this point, "And that's why we needed to hide it again some place safe...Some place _you_ won't be able to find it again, for all of our safety, _especially_ your own!"

The boy took in what his father had just said and instead of feeling angry that he did not know where his 'precious' gem was, he was instead greatly relieved. "Good! Very good! I don't want to have to see that stupid thing ever again if I can help it!"

Naruto smiled, "I'm very happy to hear you say that son." The Seventh Hokage stood up and walked over to his son, pulling out a kunai as he went. The boy had to admit that he was a little bit nervous when he saw that. "Ino?"

The platinum blonde woman made a few quick hand signs and closed her eyes for few seconds. Her body went limp as Sai caught her. In about five to ten seconds Ino's body woke back up again.

"Well?" Naruto asked.

"He's clean," Ino responded. "Whatever the gem did to his mind he seems to be over it now...And he really does mean it when he says he's sorry for everything that's happened."

That was all Naruto needed to hear as a relieved smile washed over his face as he looked down at his son. "Apology accepted then."

The blonde male kneeled down and used his kunai to start cutting the ropes that bound the boy's hands and feet. "I'm sorry about this son, I _really_ am. But after what happened I...I had to make sure, for the sake of everyone."

"I understand dad, really," the boy said in guilt as the last of his binds were cut.

As soon as he was set free, his father brought his son into a tight hug. Yes, as Hokage he should be reprimanding the boy for what happened, even after knowing the truth. But as his father, he was just so pleased to have his son back and have him back to normal after all this chaos that he didn't care.

After the two Uzumaki males broke up their hug, the boy looked to the pink-haired woman, now standing up from the log she was sitting on as her tears finally fell from her eyes. But they were not tears of sadness, but rather tears of joy.

Sakura bolted over to her son and brought him into a tight hug of her own. The boy kept whispering "I'm sorry" into her ear over and over again, to which his mother replied, "Its okay" over and over again.

After who knows how much time, they broke apart enough for mother and son to look each other in the eyes.

"I sorry mom...I love you."

"I love you too Shina."

Karin was wiping tears out of her eyes (as were the rest of the women actually) as her husband stood up.

"I suppose I need to apologize to you too Shinachiku," Sasuke said. "This never would have happened to you if I had never dragged you into this."

"Uncle Sasuke," Shinachiku said, "you didn't do anything wrong. Thanks to you I got to go on my first real adventure and I wouldn't have passed that up for anything. Besides, if not for you, Aunt Karin and Sarada, I would have been stuck in the village when Taka attacked—" The boy stopped his speech when he realized what he just said. He turned to his father. "Dad, I don't know what you did with the Chakra Gem, but you saw what it can do. If Uragi and Taka ever got their hands of that kind of power—"

"Way ahead of you son! Don't worry, there's no way that your old man's ever going to let them get that gem. _Believe it!_"

Shinachiku smiled 'My dad always sounds so cool when he says that!' "Fuck yeah—! OW!"

Sakura clonked her son on the head in irritation. "Watch your language young man! Or next time I swear I'm getting the bar of soap!"

"Sorry mom," the boy said shyly as he rubbed his head.

Many of the adults grinned and chuckled to themselves at this scene. This boy was _definitely_ his father's son. Even Sarada couldn't help but smile at this.

"Hey! I hate to be the one to ruin this kiss and make up," Shikamaru interrupted, "but since the kid's already mentioned Taka, we're going to have to come up with some sort of plan Naruto."

Naruto stood up and sighed aloud. "Yeah, I know." He turned to his best friend, "Sasuke, are you sure that Taka have cells in _all five_ of the hidden villages already?"

"That's what all of my sources say," the Uchiha answered. "Wherever this group first came from, they've apparently been infiltrating since after the war ended."

"Which means that Uragi's likely not even the main figurehead," Sakura realized. "Even if we stop him, there will still be more leaders to take over after he's arrested."

"Exactly," Sasuke sighed. 'Whatever they've got planned for the Chakra Gems its very dangerous. Hell, the gem we found can wipe out a whole village by itself if someone willed it to. Put all seven of these things together and Uragi or someone even worse than him would become like a god!"

Nuruto looked deep in thought for a moment. "Then I suppose we have no choice." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doing?" Kiba asked in alarm.

"We need to contact the other four kages and warn them about the Taka infiltration."

"You moron!" Shikamaru shouted in fury. "Have you forgotten that you and Sakura are still wanted fugitives?! Or that the rest of us are your accomplices now?! If any of us make a call to any place, they'll track us in seconds!"

"I KNOW!" Naruto shouted back in irritation. "But its not like we've got any better ideas. Gaara, Darui, Chōjūrō, Kurotsuchi, they all need to know the truth before its too late!"

"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted, "I appreciate your concern, but I think you're forgetting one important thing here."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"Taka could have thousands of followers in their ranks by now, there's no telling who is a double agent working for them and who isn't! And since their goal seems to be wiping out the kage system anyway...Whose to say some of the other kages aren't in on it themselves?"

"You can't be serious?" Tenten said incredulously.

"I-Impossible" was the only word Lee could muster in response.

"You're right Lee, it _is_ impossible!" Naruto stated firmly. "I'm not going to start doubting any of my friends and call any of them traitors! The kages are my friends and they've all taken an oath to defend their villages to the end! None of them would betray that oath to go side with Taka!"

"How can you know for sure?" Chōji asked.

Naruto didn't answer for a couple of seconds, "Because if any of us start second-guessing our own friends, then as far as I'm concerned Taka's already won."

There was a long silence that lasted what felt like a solid minute. Naruto was right, they all knew it. In a crisis like this bonds of trust and friendship were more important than ever. All of them were in this together now and they were all going to solve it together as well, or die trying!

"Wait a moment!" Sai said in an uncharacteristically high voice. "I just remembered something!"

"What is it?" Ino asked her husband.

"Naruto, Sakura, didn't you tell us earlier that Kabuto was still in the Land of Sound developing the antidotes for those serums that nullified chakra output?"

Both husband and wives's eyes widened in shock at what their former teammate had just said. So much had happened to them in such a short amount of time that they actually almost forgot about that!

"Oh shit! He's right!" Naruto proclaimed as he looked towards his wife.

"Naruto, we need to get back to the Sound Village and double check to make sure Kabuto hasn't betrayed us."

"That's gonna be an awful lot of walking," Kiba complained.

Naruto merely looked at the dog master in annoyance and decided to put an end to his whining the best way he knew how...He turned around, bent over, and let off a massive fart right into Kiba's face!

"AAAAGGGHHHH!" Kiba cried out as he grabbed his nose in disgust. "Damn it Naruto! Why is it always ME?!"

Naruto looked to the rest of his team, "Any more complaints?"

The others all shook their heads no in a mixture of fear and disgust. The only ones who didn't were Sasuke and Karin, who each had their heads in their hands in embarrassment, and Sakura, who hung her head in humiliation at what her husband had just done. Sarada was grossed out as she pinched her nose in disgust, but Shinachiku was laughing at the scene because it reminded him of one of the funniest scenes he'd read about in his dad's book.

Randamu looked at all of this and he also was laughing his head off. "HAHAHAHAHA! Oh God! Now that was a _gasser_!"

Suigetsu groaned, "UGH! Did you _really_ just say that?!"

"I sure did! In fact, you could say that Kiba _reeks_ of defeat!"

"You need to stop, right now," Jūgo stated.

"I wish I could, but to pass up such a good opportunity for a joke would be _ass_-inine!"

By now Randamu was rolling on the forest floor laughing hysterically at himself.

Karin frowned in utter annoyance. "Hey Naruto, you think you've got one more of those left in you? Enough to put Randamu into a coma?"

Naruto was frowning in annoyance also, "Sorry, the tank's empty for the moment."

As Randamu kept laughing his butt off, Naruto apologized (sort of) to Kiba for his little prank and they all agreed to start heading back to the Otogakure...

...By the time Randamu's laughter finally calmed down, he looked around and realized that everyone had already left without him.

"HEY! No fair! Don't go kicking me out of the band like that! This ain't funny!"

The masked ninja turned his head to the side to speak, once again, to his supposed audience that no one else in the world could see save for himself. "Can you believe those guys?! _Really!_ I make one string of great jokes at their expense and they ditch me like I'm a fifth wheel! It's like I'm that new character drafted in to increase ratings or shake up the routine formula but instead all I do is come off as annoying! Its like I'm Cousin Oliver or Wesley Crusher or Jar Jar Binks or something...!"

Randamu then went into another rant. "...Then again, I suppose this is a good lesson in the long run: Always remember kids, friendships are precious and while we all enjoy a good laugh, too many jokes made at the expense of your friends can get them angry and in the end _cost_ you those friendships. So be kind and considerate to your friends kids, because loosing them over a joke is _never_ funny."

He then pointed straight into the invisible camera for emphasis. "Now you know! And _knowing_ is half the battle! **NA—RU—TOOOOO!**"

* * *

Gaara of the Desert, the Fifth Kakekage, sat at the desk in his office the following day after the children spent the night at his home. Drinking his cup of coffee he was hard at work on his laptop computer trying to get all of his usual workload done.

But that was proving unusually difficult today as the former jinchūriki's brain was preoccupied with concern for what to do next about the children. Naruto's daughter needed some kind of medical attention to undo whatever this mysterious enemy had done to her, but as they've already determined, there was no way she could be checked into a hospital in the wake of all that was transpiring.

The auburn-haired male was on the verge of getting a major headache when he heard a knock on the door. "Enter."

The door opened to reveal none other than the Kazekage's own daughter. "Sunako? What is the meaning of this? I thought I ordered you to stay at home and watch over the other children?"

"Forgive me father," the auburn-haired girl began, "but the others and I got to talking yesterday and we decided that I needed to come to you to ask something."

"And what is that?'

"Father, we need to know what the strategy is to make contact with Hanami's parents."

"Sunako," Gaara began, "we've already discussed that contacting them is out of the question."

"Perhaps not."

"I beg our pardon?"

"This enemy may be tracking Lord Hokage's phone lines, yes, but that does not mean that they may be tracking ours."

Gaara folded his arms, "You're suggesting that we risk attempting to contact the Hokage ourselves, assuming that he and his wife even have their phones on them, and trust that our messages are not being tracked?"

"No father, I'm suggesting that we contact Sasuke Uchiha."

The sand master's eyes widened in shock as the gears in his brains started turning. He walked up to his daughter and looked down on her with a mix of hope and fascination in his eyes.

"Your plan is to let Shinachiku know that his sister is in our care so he can tell you his location and you can then negotiate a rendezvous point to pick him up with the Chakra Gem?"

"Yes, but if luck is on our side, I think this might work out even better."

"How so?" Gaara asked with genuine interest.

"What we know for certain is that Uchiha in currently in possession of Naruto's son, and as such there is a chance that Shinachiku's phone might be tracked just like his parents. But Uchiha is a wandering ninja that they are not looking for. Even if they are, they'll be looking for messages Naruto and Sakura are sending him, not anybody else. So if we sent a message to his phone meant for Shinachiku, then assuming the boy is still with him—"

"Then Sasuke could show the message to Shinachiku and he could let us know his location."

"Its not just that father. If I were Naruto or Sakura, one of the first things I would prioritize is locating my children."

Now Gaara finally understood what his daughter was getting at. "You're counting on his parents soon catching up with him, or that they will soon enough."

"Precisely," Sunako stated. "Then all we need to do is negotiate a meeting place near their location that one of us is familiar with and we can retrieve them all with the gem."

Gaara smiled—yes _smiled_—at his daughter and e put a hand on her head. "Sunako, I commend your method of thinking...Your mother would be proud of you."

Sunako smirked somewhat when her father said that. "Arigato father...But I cannot take all of the credit; Shikadai and I came up with this plan together."

Gaara smirked, "Hmm...I should have figured. Ever the strategist just like his father."

Sunako then remembered something that she needed to double check to ensure the success, nee the sheer practicality, of this plan. "Father, Naruto did give you Uchiha's number in case you ever needed to contact him for anything, correct?"

"He lent it to me several years ago, just in case I would ever need him for anything."

Gaara went back to his desk and started thumbing through his Rolla deck for the correct name. "Ah ha! Here it is!"

The Kazekage got out his phone and prepared to make the call, when he paused for a moment.

"What is the matter father?"

He turned to look at his daughter, "Sunako...this plan of yours and Shikadai's is brilliant, but it comes with great risk. What if you're wrong? What if the message _is_ tracked? What if Uchiha _doesn't_ receive it? What if Shinachiku _isn't_ there to see it for himself? What if Naruto and Sakura _aren't_ there with them already?"

"I realize that there are a lot of assumptions that need to be made in this father, but we have no other means of contacting Hanami's parents safely. It is a huge gamble to be sure, but how many of the greatest victories in this world have been won on a gamble, including by Naruto himself?"

Gaara listened to what his daughter had to say, and once again he found himself impressed. "I suppose you're right. Sunako, please go home for the time being and check back in with the others, I have an important phone call to make."

* * *

In the Hidden Leaf Village, a young Chūnin named Mirai Sarutobi was returning home after an exhausting and very disappointing day of searching the village. She had spent the entire day without any success in finding her mother, and now it was dark and she still had not come home.

She made dinner by herself, instant ramen. She wasn't the biggest fan of it, but it was simple, cooked fast, and it reminded her of the Seventh, who just so happened to be a friend of her family before he and his wife disappeared.

Sitting at the dinner table and eating alone, the young woman's mind drifted.

'Mom...where are you?'

* * *

'Mirai...'

Kurenai was still feeling down that she had missed the opportunity to reach out to her own daughter and save them all from their predicament.

In a cell opposite from hers, Yamato was starting to get impatient.

"So what's the plan Kakashi?"

"You're looking at it."

"But all you're doing is sitting there?" Konohamaru objected.

"And for the time being that is our best option. If we try any sort of prison break now, we'd risk incriminating ourselves even worse than we already are, and I fear that might somehow be to the disadvantage of the children."

"Kakashi," Shizune interrupted, "we're all Jōnin-rank shinobi here. I'm sure that an escape from a prison cell unnoticed would not be too much of a challenge for us."

"Haven't any of you been listening? I just explained that its not a question of difficulty but of criminality. Besides, even if we did break out, Uragi's got the village on lock down with Anbu patrols on high alert. Where would we go?"

Karui let out a loud sigh, "Its too bad we can't contact someone form the outside to help us."

Temari listened to what her cellmate just said and her eyes widened slightly in realization, but then relaxed in disappointment again as her idea went away as quickly as it came do to the sheer reality of their situation...

...That is, until Konohamaru suddenly smacked his own forehead. "Duh! I'm such an idiot!"

"What the matter?" asked Yamato.

The Sarutobi clan member reached into his sandal and pulled something out of it...a cellphone!

Kakashi bolted up in shock, "Where the hell did you get that?! The Anbu confiscated all of our phones when they arrested us."

"Not all of them," Konohamaru said. "I sometimes like to keep a spare on me just is case I need it as a backup for a mission. The Anbu never thought to check my shoes for anything."

Tsunade, who had hardly said a word since they got here, was impressed enough to finally break out of her funk to commend the young man. "That was very smart of you kid, I know most shinobi these days wouldn't think to try something like that. Did Naruto teach that to you?"

"No, that was my own idea."

"Who cares whose idea it was, so long as it can help us to get out of here?" Kurai proclaimed.

"I know just the person to call."

Everyone turned to look at Temari and the wind mistress prepared to make a suggestion.

"I suggest we use that phone to place a call to my brother in Sunagakure."

"What?!" Shizune shouted incredulously. "What good would that do us?"

"Listen," Temari explained, "my village has access to..." she shifted her eyes as if to double check no one else was listening in, "...something special in it's possession. If we send a message to Gaara, he can send somebody here in a matter of seconds to get in, find our cells, and get us all out of here and into Suna just a quickly."

"That's impossible!" Yamato shouted in complete shock. "Nobody can get from Suna to Konoha in just a few seconds! A trip like that would take days even without stopping to rest or make camp!"

"Trust me, it can work!"

Everyone looked to one another, some in curiosity and others in skepticism. Ultimately, they all looked to their former Hokage to make the final decision.

Kakashi stared at Temari, "Are you positive that Gaara can send someone here from Suna as fast as you claim?"

"I promise it."

The former Copy Ninja took a deep sigh. "Alright, do it!"

Guy let out a triumphant laugh, "Haha! I love it when a plan comes together!"

"Sssshhh!" Tsunade shushed him. "Keep it down you fool! You want us all to get caught?!"

"Gomen," Guy replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

Konohamaru kneeled down and squeezed the cell phone through the metal bars of his cell, and then slid the miniature device across the hall to towards the cell Temari was in. Kurenai then reached through the bars of her own cell to pick up the phone and hand it over to Temari.

The sandy blonde woman quickly dialed a number she knew by heart and prayed to the gods that even in here the signal was somehow strong enough to reach where she needed it to go.

"Say," Kurai spoke up, "what is this 'something special' that your village has that can help us anyway?"

Temari merely glanced at her cellmate briefly before she looked back to what she was doing. "You might not believe me even if I told you."

* * *

Sunako was bowing to her father and was just about to leave his office...when all of a sudden, right before Gaara was about to try contacting Sasuke Uchiha, his cell phone suddenly started ringing.

'Well that oddly surreal,' both father and daughter thought to themselves.

Sunako was walking back towards the door as her father answered his phone.

"Hello? ...W-WHAT?!" Gaara hastily signaled his daughter not to leave yet. "I can't believe this! Is it really you?! Kankurō and I have been so—Wait, _what?!_ You're calling from _where?!_ How many others are with you...? You need to speak up, the signal is weak! Uh huh... Uh huh... Yes I understand. Well, I'm not sure I know anyone who knows that facility well enough to just teleport in there directly without—Yes, I understand. In fact..." Gaara glanced at his pride and joy still standing there in his office, "...I think I know just the person to trust this surprise mission to. Don't worry, we'll figure this out, just stay calm and be patient. And Temari...I love you."

As Gaara hung up the phone, he looked to his daughter, whose eyes went wide with shock at the last part of the conversation her father had just had.

"Father...was that—?"

"Sunako, I'm afraid our plans to get in touch with Hanami's family are going to have to wait. I hope your chakra has replenished by now because I have another rescue mission for you."

* * *

"Hey, should we really have left Randamu behind back there?" Hinata asked.

"Don't worry about it," Karin countered, "Just give him enough time and he always find some way to catch up to us again. That's just the way it is with him, nothing ever makes sense."

"Yeah, we figured that part out already," Kiba remarked.

The company had been making some remarkably fast time in traveling to their destination. Why is it that the trip towards your destination always seems to take much longer than the trip back?

"Hey dad?" Shinachiku asked as he and the others all leaped from tree to tree.

"Yeah?" Naruto responded.

"This Kabuto person we're heading to Oto to go see. I've read your book...Isn't he—?"

Naruto let out a deep sigh, "Yes son, he was once Orochimaru's apprentice."

"And you trust him?"

"Not really, but your mother and I ran into him as we were doing some business out of the village and...well its complicated."

"Shinachiku," Sakura added, "your father and I need to pick up something that Kabuto agreed to work on for us while we came to find you. If he's done his job then it could help a bunch of people in the long run."

"And if he _hasn't_ done his job?"

"...Well then we'll figure out something."

Sarada was listening in as she turned to her own parents. "Hey dad, you used to be friends with this Kabuto guy right?"

Sasuke looked down at his daughter in irritation, "I prefer to think of him as a former acquaintance rather than a friend."

"Sarada," Karin interjected, "this man your Uncle Naruto and Aunt Sakura are going to see is very dangerous. No matter what happens we need you and Shinachiku to promise to wait outside and not get yourselves involved. Understand?"

Sarada frowned, "Yes mom."

Within another hour or two, the Konoha 12—with the children and Sasuke's team in tow—had made it back to the sight where they first left together for the Hidden Whirlpool Village.

"This is the Land of Sound?" Shinachiku asked aloud as he took in his surroundings.

"Yeah, lovely place, ain't it kid?" Sasuke asked in total sarcasm. The one-armed Uchiha then turned to the boy's father, "So where's Kabuto?"

""He's down in that bunker," Sakura said pointing to the structure in question. "He's taken up shop in a one of Orochimaru's secret laboratories."

Sasuke looked around the area in question and back at the bunker. "Funny, Orochimaru had a lot of laboratories, but I can't remember ever spending any time in this one."

"I don't think I remember ever seeing this place either," Suigetsu noted.

"Me neither," Jūgo concurred.

"Ditto," was Karin's only response as she adjusted her glasses.

"Hey guys!" Tenten shouted, "I think you'd better come look at this!"

The group walked over to where Tenten's voice came from and they were horrified at what they all saw. The Konoha 11 all remembered leaving their former captain Odaku behind after they knocked him out to go help their friends, but they didn't necessarily think that he would still be here in case they came back...much less in such horrific condition.

Odaku's body lay limp on the forest floor, his head separated from his body and blood was all over both the body and the grass.

The adults were all repulsed at the sight, but the children were both mortified. Sakura and Karin didn't hesitate to cover up their eyes as quickly as possible.

"Son of a..." Chōji could not even finish his sentence.

"It is a tragic end indeed," Lee said sadly.

"Who could be so cruel?" Hinata asked softly.

Naruto did not respond, but he somehow, instinctively, knew the answer.

'Dad...Mom...what have they done to you?'

He let out a deep sigh before forcing himself back into Hokage mode and addressing his team. "Alright listen up, Sakura and I are going down there to settle some business with our 'friend.' The rest of you stay here and keep watch. Sasuke and Shikamaru are in charge until we get back." He then looked directly at the children. "You two, stay here and do whatever the adults tell you, and if anything happens you both stay out of sight. Is that understood?"

Both kids nodded their heads in understanding, though internally they were each a bit annoyed that they were being talked down to like a couple of academy students instead of the proven genin that they were.

With no more words said, Naruto gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek, and she gave one back to him, as they both descended the staircase back into the secret lab where somewhere inside Kabuto Yakushi was waiting for them.

* * *

And there you have it! Yet another chapter in the can!

I hope that Shinachiku's coming back too his normal self wasn't too quick, which I why I really wanted to emphasize his guilt and all of the emotion of the moment.

By the way, Sarada saying that the Chakra Gem turns him into a big jerk was a very obscure reference to an episode of "Rocko's Modern Life." There is an episode where Heffer gets a job as a late night security guard and the power that comes with the uniform, well...goes to his head a little bit. He ends up in jail by the end and Rocko has the bail him out (or at least he was going to until the very end) and when Heffer explains that something about the uniform made him feel big and important, Rocko just says that what it made him was a big jerk. Again, very obscure reference, but you never know what things you watch as a kid will stick with you.

Guy's proclamation "I love it when a plan come together" was an homage to John "Hannibal" Smith from "The A-Team."

Yes, I really did it! I had Naruto intentionally fart in Kiba's face...AGAIN! I know its low brow humor but I couldn't help myself. I couldn't resist calling back to, whether we want to admit it or not, one of the funniest scenes from the series.

In fact, Kiba's outcry of "Why is it always me?!" was a reference not only to the sheer fact that, for some reason, poor Kiba always seems to be on the receiving end every time Naruto breaks wind (besides the Chūnin Exams, it happened at lest two more times in anime filler), but it also references a line that Neville Longbottom says in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," where he questions why he is always the one that has the bad luck.

Randamu's long string of fart-related puns was yet another Austin Powers callback. And for them to just up and leave him behind this time was just a funny idea I came up with. Lets face it, if you were forced to hang out with somebody like this is real life, you'd probably try to ditch him as soon as you can also. Don't worry though, Randamu WILL be back!

Lastly, Randamu's bizarre, impromptu PSA...Oh who am I kidding! You all know that its a direct tribute to those classic G.I. Joe PSAs from the 80s (there were also at least five others made for Transformers also). They always involved a bunch of kids having some problem and then one of the Joes shows up out of nowhere to help them and give some sort of life lesson. At the end of every single one the kids always say 'Now we know!" and the Joes say the unforgettable line "And knowing is half the battle!"

I've had a really cooky idea for a "Knowing is Half the Battle" PSA fanfic where a bunch of anime characters essentially do exactly what the Joes do in those old cartoons, including some that are intentionally hypocritical; for example, having Ash from "Pokémon" show up to discourage cock fighting. But I don't know if I'm ever going to do something like that, oh well.

That's all I've got for this time, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Until nest time, see ya!


	28. Chapter 27--Narrow Escapes

What's up everybody, the saiyanjedi's back again with another exciting chapter!

Okay, before I get into this, there are a couple things I needs to address first. By now I'm sure that all of you have read the seventh chapter of "Naruto Gaiden" where (spoiler warning) a DNA test confirmed that Karin truly is Sarada's mother! On the one hand, yes, I do feel vindicated for choosing to go the way I did with her for this story. On the the other hand, yes, I do think this paints a very dark picture for SasuSaku (no offense to any SasuSaku fans reading this, I swear!). But on yet _another_ hand (assuming there can be three hands), I also think that this development makes a statement about Sakura's character. Its not easy to be entrusted with a child that isn't even biologically your own, for whatever reason, and to raise and love them unconditionally as if t were your own. That takes plenty of love and selflessness and I think she really did want to give Sarada the closest thing she could to a normal life. I was going to post another Author's Commentary after this chapter came out, but I decided to wait until the following week to see where it leads first. I'm glad it did because the scene between Naruto and Sarada did help to defuse the high emotion and bring Sakura's selflessness and sacrifice here into the light. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Naruto bring Sarada into a hug like he was her godfather (I still can't believe Kishimoto hasn't confirmed anything of that sort), but that's just me. Maybe I'm personally in favor of Sarada seeing everything in Naruto that she doesn't see in her own father, but this family drama is already getting too damned heavy as it is!

Now, do I support the implication of Sasuke cheating on his 'wife' and knocking up another woman behind her back? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I'm with Naruto on this one, he and Sasuke need to have a talk and I wouldn't be surprised if it comes down to fisticuffs! Then again, to give Kishimoto some sort off defense, we still don't know the whole story. Maybe Sakura was somehow sterile and physically incapable of bearing children so Karin conceived her as a surrogate? Maybe Suigetsu somehow got the test wrong; last time I checked he wasn't a scientist. Who knows!

In the wake of 707's release, I went back in and did a few tweaks, namely updating some of the character's introductory descriptions now that we know what Karin, Suigetsu, Jūgo and Yamato look like during this period...as it turns out I didn't need to change too much and I decided to keep Taka's costumes the same since we are in an alternate reality.

Actually, one of the most bizarre things I've found about this entire Naruto Gaiden series is that Bolt is barely in it! I realize that there is a new movie coming out that is going to be all about him, but I figured that this series was intended to be a buildup to that.

In speaking of Bolt, a lot of us, myself included, have cried foul on the fact that neither Bolt nor Himawara possess the Byakugan. Most of us thought that this was Kishimoto being a moron and forgetting one of his own details, but after our theory about Karin and Sarada turned out to be true, I'm starting to wonder whether or not there's a good reason why their Byakugan is missing that just hasn't been revealed to us yet. Oh well.

If anybody wants to discuss recent events any further, please feel free to leave a comment.

Anyway, on to this week's chapter. I read a review of last chapter by animeficfan where he asked for more fighting. Well, I didn't decide on a fight per se, but I did work to bring in some more action. You'll see what I mean when you get into it.

So, on that note, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 27: Narrow Escapes**

The couple made their way down the same stairs and corridors they did last time they came here. It was amazing how since their last visit this place had failed to be any less creepy.

Naruto and Sakura went through the same offices as before until they made it to the same hidden staircase behind the shelf. Wasting no time, they descended down the stars into the lab in the basement of this subterranean facility.

"Kabuto?" Naruto called out. "Kabuto, its Naruto! Sakura and I are back! Where the hell are you?!"

There was silence for a few seconds before a hooded and cloaked figure appeared out of the dark shadows.

"You know, you really shouldn't speak so rudely when entering somebody else's home. Do your guests show you the same manners when they visit your place of residence Naruto?"

The orange ninja merely rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

"Kabuto," Sakura spoke up, "we've come back for the antidotes you agreed to work on for us when we were called away. Have you made any progress since we left?"

The Snake Sannin's apprentice grinned smugly beneath his cloak. "As a matter of fact I have. Give me just a moment."

He went over to one of the desks inside the laboratory and opened a drawer. He pulled out four vials of clear liquid, two of them contained an clearish-orange liquid, the other two a clearish-green liquid.

He walked over to the couple with what he had developed. "Alright listen, it wasn't easy but I was able to come up with a chemical reagent that when combined with the original serums formed an antidote to each. The reagent was colored yellow, which is why the antidotes came out looking the way they do. Assuming both of you still remember your secondary colors, you can probably figure out which is an antidote to which."

Naruto actually looked like he was stretching his brain muscles a little bit. "So...the orange one is the antidote to the red serum and the green one is the antidote to the blue serum, right?"

Kabuto scowled at the blonde former kage in annoyance. "Seriously, you had to think _that_ hard to figure that out?"

"Hey cut me a break okay! This different color serum thing is weird enough and I've had a lot on my mind these last couple of days."

Sakura waved her hands in the air to silence the conversation. "Alright enough!" She turned to face Kabuto. "Look, Kabuto, both of us want to thank you for everything you've done to help us, and if it makes you feel better I'll be sure to give you fair credit for developing the serum once we need it."

"I'd appreciate that, thank you. In fact, I went ahead and did you one better. I got you each two samples of each antidote: one just in case you need to use it on anyone you know right away, the other for mass production."

Sakura reached out to take the antidotes from the snake hybrid. "Thank you."

But before she could get her fingers on what they were there for, Kabuto pulled his arm back. "Not so fast."

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked in irritation.

"Naruto, Sakura, its been a delight getting the opportunity to see both of you again and it really was a pleasure to be able to help you...Having said that, my services don't come for free."

Naruto growled to himself as he reached for his wallet. "How much?"

"Oh you misunderstand, I'm not talking about money."

Hearing that suddenly got the two of them really nervous. Both of them knew what the other was thinking too, no words needed to be said, merely a quick look into each other's eyes.

"What is it you want then?" Sakura asked is suspicion.

Kabuto smirked for just a split second before going on. "You know, I've learned a great deal while I trained and served with Lord Orochimaru. I've even picked up a few of his interests, particularly his fascination with science and the study of new jutsu. Unfortunately, things have been a bit slow these last few years and most of my experiments have needed to be put on hold until—"

"What do you want from us?!" Naruto asked impatiently.

"I want test subjects."

Both of their faces faulted upon hearing that. Had he _seriously_ just asked of them what they though he had?

"You've _got_ to be kidding," Naruto stated incredulously.

"No Naruto, I'm totally serious about this. I need some fresh bodies to volunteer themselves so I may continue my research."

"Kabuto," Sakura interrupted, "you know full well what Naruto and I are up against right now; hell, you told us about Taka yourself. What makes you think that the two of us would agree to be the guinea pigs for you latest science project?"

"Actually Sakura, I wasn't suggesting _either_ of you be my test subjects." Kabuto then put on a sinister grin that, coupled with what he said next, sent horrific shivers down both parent's bodies.

"Tell me...how successful were you two in recovering your son? You did bring him with you, yes?"

* * *

Outside the entrance to the secret bunker, Shinachiku got a creepy shiver up his spine, for seemingly no reason.

"Are you alright?" Sarada asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just...I just got this weird feeling that something's going on down there."

Sasuke was listening in on the kid's little conversation. "You might have a point kid...I'd better go down there."

"Whoa! Hold on!" Shikamaru shouted in protest. "Naruto gave you orders to watch over the group."

"No, he gave _us_ orders to watch over this group. A bit excessive if you ask me. If anything fishy is going on down there then I'm the best backup they've got, and we all know it!" Sasuke relaxed and raised an eyebrow at his best friend's advisor. "What's the matter Shikamaru, can't a genius like you manage to baby sit a bunch of adults and a couple of kids for a little while without me holding your hand?"

Shikamaru glared at the Uchiha survivor before he huffed and turned away from him. "You can be a real asshole, you know that Sasuke?"

"I know, its real troublesome isn't it?"

Shikamaru didn't even look at the raven haired man so as not to let him see the vein appearing on his forehead. Instead he merely waved his hand in a dismissing manner.

With that, Sasuke shared a knowing nod with his wife and was about to walk to the entrance until...

"Dad! You aren't really going down there are you?"

He kneeled down to his daughter's height and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, its going to be alright. I'm just going in to check up on your aunt and uncle. Your mother can watch over you until I get back."

Sarada gave her father a brief hug, which he somewhat awkwardly accepted, before he stood up and descended into the mysterious bunker that once belonged to his former master...

"I'll be right back, I've gotta take a whiz."

Sarada frowned and her eye twitched at Shinachiku's announcement. "Haven't you ever heard of tact?!"

"He's his father's son Sarada, he can't help it sometimes," Shino said in a deadpan tone.

About a minute later, Shinachiku was far enough into the woods and away from the group that he was comfortable zipping down his fly and relieving himself against a tree.

"Aaaahhh! I've been holding that in for days!"

As the boy was emptying his bladder he noticed something. It looked like movement in the bushes and trees off in the distance. He eyed it suspiciously because he only got a quick look, so quick that he wondered whether or not he really saw anything at all.

By the time he was done, he zipped himself up and walked over to the bushes and trees in question. He looked around for anything suspicious, but he could not find a trace of movement anywhere, or any evidence that anyone or anything besides himself had been there.

"Shinachiku! Are you all right?!"

The boy turned as he heard the voice calling him from a distance. "I'm fine Aunt Ino! I'll be right there!"

As he started heading back towards the group, he could have sworn he heard something else that sounded like bushes rustling. He looked back one more time but again he saw nothing. Getting over it, he figured that his mind was just playing tricks on him and decided to head back to the others.

As the boy made it back to the clearing, he noticed that everyone was still gathered in the exact same place as when he left, and also that neither his parents or his godfather had returned.

"They're still not back yet?" he asked one of his surrogate aunts.

"No, not yet," Ino said.

"Do not worry Shinachiku, soon your parents and your uncle shall return with their prize and once they do we will soon be on our way. Yosh!"

"Umm...arigato Lee sir." Shinachiku rubbed the back of his head, 'Jeez! He's just like Burandon!'

"I apologize for him," Tenten said, "he's always like this."

"Its okay; I'm friends with your son, so I'm used to it."

Suddenly they heard what sounded like a bellowing rumble emanating from deep within the bunker, a rumble that kept growing louder and louder by the second.

"What the hell is that?" Kiba asked aloud.

Nobody was sure what was going on, but there was a bad feeling going around. Shinachiku heard the noise keep getting louder and louder, and then he saw it.

"MOM! DAD!"

* * *

It was like any other day in Konoha. The birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, and the village was still on mandated lock down as ordered by Councilman Uragi. Those who were out and about were mostly putting on the facade of happiness, while in truth the demeanor was rather dour.

When the Seventh Hokage left the village, a large part of the village's soul went with him. There was something about Naruto that could brighten up and inspire everyone around him... Hard to believe that this was the same village that ostracized him his entire life for being a monster.

Regardless, the streets of Konoha were quiet for the most part. That was good, because it meant that no one noticed a mysterious green light appear in one of the village's dark alleyways.

From out of that light emerged a single figure, a young girl, Genin rank, with long and unkempt auburn hair and dressed in typical garb one might expect of a Sand shinobi. The girl had a small gourd of sand strapped to her hip, it was the only weapon she had on her.

Tucking a powerful artifact into her pocket that resembled a green gem, she wasted no more time and focused her mind on the task at hand.

Her father had entrusted her with this mission and she was not about to let him down. After all, she had a personal investment in it's outcome.

The plan was simple: infiltration and extraction. Get into the village, find the location where the targets are being kept, infiltrate the site and recover the targets, then get out of the village the same way she arrived.

Sunako, daughter of the Fifth Kazekage, was all business as she used her ninja stealth to dash from alleyway to alleyway, to leap from rooftop to rooftop, without being noticed by Anbu patrols. Even civilians were not able to see or hear any trace of her presence as she ran in the direction of her destination.

She did not know how long exactly it took her to reach the correct location, but now that she stood before Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility, far enough away to be out of sight of security, it was time for the hard part to begin.

Reaching to her side, she pulled the cork out of her gourd and allowed the particles of sand to dance in the air to answer it's master's will.

"SAND DRILL!"

The sand hardened into a stalactite shape pointed straight at the ground and spun at a rapid pace. It spun so fast that upon making contact with the ground it punctured the Earth and drilled a hole. The hole grew larger and larger, forming a tunnel underground though which the girl was able to enter.

The sand drilled its way towards the prison. Sunako knew how far away she was from the facility but it was still a trick to properly judge the distance when she was traveling underground. After walking for what must have been a couple hundred yards, she aimed the hardened sand upwards as it began drilling up into to the surface.

The drill penetrated the surface and when it made its way through the sand finally softened and retreated back into its gourd as Sunako pulled her way up into the room.

She was in an unoccupied bathroom within the facility. Judging by the urinal against the wall, she reasoned she was in the men's room.

'Lovely,' Sunako thought to herself before she heard the door opening up. She quickly dashed into one of the stalls and locked it, leaping onto the porcelain toilet so no one would see her feet.

Wouldn't you know it, the guard stopped right in front of the stall that she was hiding in, already unzipping his fly before he even got in there...Well, no sooner had the door to the stall opened than the guard's eyes, hands, feet and mouth were all bound and gagged by a cloud of floating sand. After a few long seconds, the guard eventually lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor. He would be that way for several hours at least, leaving the girl free to make her escape.

Peaking out into the hallway, she saw no one coming dawn the hall so she ran out and peaked around the next corner. There were no less than three guards down that way, they needed to be dealt with.

Making a few hand signs, Sunako released her sand into the hallway, moving it along the ceiling and out of sight to avoid detection. The sand stretched outwards and over the heads of each of the guards. There it remained until the time was right. With a gesture from the girl, the sand came down from the ceiling and entrapped all three of them in a coffin of sand, muffling any sound they could make save for the brief gasp of horror just before the sand had engulfed them. This lasted for several seconds until she could feel that all three guards had passed out. When that happened the sand spat them both out unconscious.

This was the pattern for the majority of the mission. Her father had ordered her to avoid lethal take downs in case it might be a detriment both to the targets she was sent to recover and to the village in case Konoha should realize who was behind this prison break...Besides, Sunako was a lot of things, but unlike her father when he was her age she was _not_ a cold blooded killer...Not unless there was no other way.

Using her sand, which often acted as though it had a mind of its own, Sunako took out guard after guard, putting them in sleeper holds, knocking them out with sand-crafted fists as solid as stone, tripping them beneath their feet and following it up with a sand uppercut, and many other creative and non-lethal attack combinations. She made sure to keep the attacks going super fast and always catch her targets by surprise, that way, if she were lucky, the victims would not have time to recognize what exactly was attacking them and therefore not remember what had happened when they eventually came to, thus not having a clue who to blame.

It kept going like this until she finally arrived at her first destination, the control room. In there would be the security cameras that would show her the cell she was searching for. Only one problem, there were two guards standing in front of the door and who knows how many other security personnel inside the room.

'First things first...'

Making some quick hand signs, she morphed her sand into the shape of another being, a sand clone, only molded to resemble a nearly fully grown version of herself. The clone was dressed in Jōnin attire to avoid any suspicion. Once fully formed, the clone ran up to the two guards who were immediately alerted to her presence.

"Halt!" one of the guards shouted.

The clone stopped in front of them and did a salute, to keep up appearances. "Sir! I've just received word from the warden; all guards are ordered to report to the southwest wing right away for a mandatory meeting."

The two guards glanced at one another, "But we're on duty right now. If we were to leave then the control room would be completely vulnerable to sabotage."

"Oh really? Very well then, I'll make sure to tell the warden that you said that in total defiance of his authority. What were your names again?"

Now both of the guards were starting to panic, "Wait! Don't tell the warden! Please! We're just.."

"We're just confused is all," the second guard finished.

The sand clone kept up appearances and it improvised its response. "Hey I'm confused too, but the warden's overdone it on the sake today and he's acting...irrational. If you ask me, its best to just do whatever he says, right?"

The two guards looked to one another again before one of them spoke up. "...Yeah, I guess you're right."

Both of them ran from their posts in the direction told to them. But then the door to the room opened to reveal the guard currently in charge of monitor duty.

"Hey what's all the commotion out h—!"

The guard never got to finish his sentence before he felt a giant pair of hands made out of sand form a coffin around his body until he passed out. The sand then softened as it left his body on the floor and returned to its gourd.

Sunako now had complete access to the control room and she immediately scanned through all of the monitors to find whichever cells were incarcerating her targets.

It only took her about fifteen seconds to identify the cameras that were on the cells she was looking for. Kakashi Hatake, the man she knew as the Sixth Hokage, was sharing a cell with his old rival, the paraplegic Might Guy, while Lady Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, was sharing a cell with her former student Shizune. There was also Konohamaru Sarutobi, one of the Seventh's earliest students, who was cellmates with Anbu Captain Yamato, and the Leaf Village Jōnin Kurenai who was the imprisoned with the former Cloud Village shinobi Karui and a third person, the one whom she wanted to rescue most of all.

So with that, she proceeded to shut off the security cameras that would be directly in her path to the cell.

Using her ninja stealth and the power granted to her by her sand, Sunako incapacitated guard after guard as she made her way to her destination. Eventually, only two guards standing in front of the door to the cells were left in her way.

Reacting quickly, she used her sand to trip both guards from under their feet, tossing them hard on the ground, and then focused the sand into two rock hard fists that knocked both of them out cold.

Pulling the keys off of the now unconscious guards (the latest out of several), she tried out each key until she found the right one. Opening the door, she quickly caught the attention of the prisoners.

"Whose there?" Yamato questioned.

"What do you want?" Shizune asked rudely, figuring it to be another guard.

The girl had her head down so they could not see her face, but she quickly raised a finger to her mouth and made a "Shush!" sound to silence them. "Silence! They may still be guards near by and we cannot afford to attract any more attention."

Temari bolted up and made a dash to the prison bars upon hearing that voice. "S-Sunako?! Is that you?!"

The girl raised her head as she turned to the appropriate cell. "Yes, it is me Aunt Temari."

The wind mistress grabbed her niece and hugged her through the bars. "Oh sweetie! I'm so happy to see you! But why did you come here?"

"My father sent me here to rescue all of you and bring you back to Sunagakure for your safety."

"What?! _You're_ our escape plan?!" Karui question is disbelief. "Temari, I thought you were going to use that phone call to contact someone _useful?!_"

"For your information Karui," Kakashi interrupted, "this girl just so happens to by Sunako of the Desert, daughter to Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage himself. I wouldn't underestimate her if I were you."

Well...the hot-tempered Karui needed to swallow a bit of crow for that one. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now everyone stand back, we don't have much time."

"Wait!" Shizune spoke up, "what about the children? They're still out there somewhere—"

"The children are fine. I found them and brought them back with me to Suna, including the Seventh's daughter."

All of the parents were stunned, before the mothers started shedding a few tears of joy.

"S-Shikadai?"

"Yes Aunt Temari, he's there."

"What about Chōchō?" Karui asked in worry.

"Yes, her too."

"Lee and Tenten's son, Burandon?" Guy questioned.

"Yes."

"How about the Inuzuka-Hyūga twins?" Konohamau asked.

"Or Sai and Ino's son?" Kakashi asked.

"Or Shino's son?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, yes! All of them are in Suna right now. In fact, they're staying with me and my father for the time being. Now would you all _please_ stand back? We don't have much time!"

The occupants of the four prison cells stood against the back walls as Sunako stood in the center. Focusing her mind and chakra, she released her sand from its gourd once more, this time spreading it out and forming it into four pairs of stone hands, eight hands in total. With a mighty heave, she willed the stone hands to grab hold of the prison bars and they pulled with all of their strength...and pulled...and pulled...until at last the iron gave and was ripped from the hinges, freeing the nine prisoners from their confinement.

"Lets go! Someone would have heard that!" Sunako commanded.

"Wait," Kurenai yelled, "what about my daughter? She still doesn't know where I am. We need to find her and let her know—"

"I'm sorry, but there isn't time," Sunako said.

"Kurenai," Tsunade said, "I'm sorry but she's right. If we're to escape than it needs to be now."

The woman hung her head in shame as a single tear fell down her face.

"Alright, everyone gather around me!"

The group huddled around Sunako as she raised her closed fist into the air.

"Hey!" Konohamaru shouted, "did we have a plan for getting out of here?"

"Yes, its the same plan for how I got into this village the same day I left."

"WHAT?! What are you—?"

"Trust her! She knows what she's doing! Just hang on!" Temari yelled.

"Hey! Freeze!" A small squadron of guards appeared and immediately began throwing shurikens and kunais at the prisoners and the one that had freed them.

"SAND BARRIER!"

A wall of sand appeared in front of them to shield the group from the assault.

"SAND BULLET!"

Small holes opened up in the sand wall from which 'bullets' of hardened sand shot out at rapid speed, enough to knock the guards out.

Quickly recalling the sand back into her gourd, Sunako spoke up to all of the others. "Its time! Hang on to me now!"

Holding her arm up in the air, the girl opened her palm as a powerful green light emitted from the gem she held. As soon as the intense beam of light appeared it, and the company of ten, had disappeared along with it.

* * *

In another flash of green light, the entire group had reappeared in an unfamiliar place. Rather than the dank, dark prison cells they were all trapped in moments ago, they now found themselves in a modest and well cared for back yard.

"W-Where are we?" Shizune questioned.

"This is my brother's house," Temari answered.

"WHAT?!" All of the other adults were is shock at what she had just said.

"But...but _how?!_" Knohamaru shouted. "How could we possibly travel from Konoha all the way to Suna in just a single second?!"

Sunako was about to explain everything, when suddenly the back door opened to reveal a young boy with back hair tied in a ponytail resembling a pineapple.

"Hey, I though I saw some weird light out here. What going—?" The boy froze in his tracks when his eyes landed upon one of the visitors in the back yard. "_Mom?!_ Is that you?!"

* * *

"Over my dead body!"

Naruto was angry...no, scratch angry, he was downright _furious_ at what the snake man had just proposed.

"Now Naruto, please don't be difficult. You know that its only fair that I receive something in return for helping you—"

"You want something in return? _Fine!_ How about a Rasenshuriken shoved up your ass! How does _that_ sound?!"

Kabuto didn't react to that outburst and instead merely looked to the pink haired medical ninja. "Sakura, you've always been the practical one. Surely you can appreciate the needs of science to advance human discovery and why I need—"

"No Kubuto, I'm standing with my husband on this!" Sakura got into a defensive pose, "You lay so much as a finger on our son and I _will_ kill you!"

Kabuto chuckled. "Isn't that cute? Two parents willing to put their lives on the line just to protect their young. Cute...but pointless. How long do you two _really_ think you can defend him? That boy, and his sister too, both of them are growing up and sooner or later the day will come when neither of you will be there to protect them. You see me as some sort of boogie man, but I'm the _least_ of what they have to contend with out there." He grinned, "Besides, Lord Orochimaru never treated dear Sasuke with anything but respect while he was with us, so why expect anything less from me?"

"Alright, I've heard enough!"

All three of them turned in the direction of the voice as out the shadows came Sasuke, his katana already drawn.

"Speak of the devil..." Kabuto noted.

Sasuke used his ninja speed to make a quick dash over to his former 'acquaintance' Kabuto and cut a deep gash into his side with his blade. The snake fell to the floor grasping his side as he quickly began healing himself. Sasuke knew this would happen and only attacked in order to get close enough to grab the vials of antidote from Kabuto's hands.

"Naruto! Sakura! Catch!" He tossed all the vials of antidote at once.

"MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Naruto made three clones of himself and all four of him caught one of the vials, to make sure nobody tried to grab too many and thus there was no risk of any getting broken. After the three clones handed their vials over to their creator, they each dissipated in a puff of smoke.

"Come on!" Sasuke commanded, "You two got what you came for, now let's get the hell out of here!"

"Not so fast!"

The three Leaf ninjas turned to Kabuto, who was about done healing himself already, as he pulled something out of his pocket...something that made Naruto's eyes grow wide and nearly smack his head at his own stupidity.

"You wouldn't want to leave without _this_ would you?"

Kabuto held up a scroll, the same scroll that Naruto's own men had tried to kill him just to get. The scroll that he has not been able to open and had hoped, falsely, that maybe either the snake or his master could reveal what was inside and whether it was vital to defeating Taka...Naruto and Sakura must have been in such a rush to go rescue their son once they learned about his whereabouts that they completely forgot to bring it with them when they left here the first time.

'Dammit! I'm such an idiot!'

Sasuke eyed his old friend in confusion. "Naruto, care to explain what that scroll's all about?"

"Its a long story; some other time okay?"

"You know," Kabuto continued, "its actually good to see you again Sasuke. Its been a long time...Say, how's Karin these days? Is she with you?"

Sasuke raised his sword at the snake, "Leave my wife out of this!"

"Very well...Oh wait! If the two of you are here, that means that daughter of yours is here too isn't she? Wonderful! That means I can have two invaluable test subjects for my next experi—"

Kabuto never got to finish his sentence as he sliced the snake clean in half, leaving him in two bloody halves on the floor.

"_Nobody_ talks about my daughter like that!"

Naruto took the opportunity to grab the scroll from the corpse's hands and placed it in his pocket. As the three friends were set to leave, they heard the sound of laughing...yes, _laughing!_

Turning around, they saw that, despite his present condition, Kabuto was laughing like a madman as his upper half used its arms to start maneuvering its way towards his lower half. Realigning himself with the half that wasn't moving, he started using his arms to begin healing himself back together.

"Quite remarkable really," Kabuto said as he stopped laughing, though still sounding no less insane. "I discovered some of Lord Orochimaru's notes from some experiments he had done on Karin's DNA years ago. You Uzumakis really are amazing! I injected a small sample of her DNA into myself and coupling that with what I had absorbed from Lord Orochimaru and my own mastery of medical ninjutsu and...well..."

Sakura finished for him as her eyes glossed over in horror. "You're immortal..."

"No, not really, but in events such as this I can remain alive long enough to literally piece myself back together."

Sasuke drew his blade once again, "I'm sorely tempted not to give you that opportunity."

"Nor am I tempted to give you yours."

He stopped healing himself long enough to reach into his lower half's pocket and pull something out. It was a rectangle of paper that he stuck to the ground.

"Paper bomb!" Naruto shouted.

"Nice seeing all of you again; we'll need to do this again sometime...Oh yeah, and say hi to the kids for me please?"

With that, Kabuto slammed his fist onto the floor and a trap door fell out for underneath him. As he descended into whatever depths lay beneath the lab, he could be heard laughing like a madman before the trap door closed itself back up, leaving the three heroes stuck in the room with the live paper bomb.

"Sasuke, use your Susanoo!" Naruto shouted.

"I can't! This place is too small to hold an avatar that size!"

"Fine! Let me give you both some of Kurama's chakra—"

"There's no time for that! We need to get out of here! NOW!" Sakura shouted.

Not wasting another second, the three of them ran back up the stairs, scroll and vials of antidote in tow, up to the second floor, just as the explosive went off...

...The fiery wave of death came at them at them as it consumed the entire lab. Sasuke saw the wave of fire coming extremely fast and instantly activated his Mangekyō Sharingan and Rinnegan to shield them...but it was a split second too late.

They were able to just barely make it out of the front door as the explosion shot out of the opening and the ground beneath the hidden bunker collapsed into itself, burying the secret place forever, along with whatever secrets Orochimaru may or may not have left behind there. Fireballs and debris flew everywhere in the aftermath of the huge explosion.

"MOM! DAD!"

"DAD!"

The three parents could not respond to the cries of the two children right away as they were too busy catching their wind after the marathon they had to take in order to outrun a freaking explosion! They were also groaning in pain as all three of them may have made it out, but even with Sasuke's kekkei genkai protecting them from the majority of the blast, it was still activated late enough to leave them with some pretty nasty burns.

In fact, their burns were so bad in fact that when Shinachiku and Sarada ran up to their parents and wrapped their arms around them, it stun, _bad!_

"AAAGGGHHHH!" Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all screamed as their children made contact with their skin.

"Oh God we're sorry!" Shinachiku said immediately letting go of his parents.

"Dad! I'm so sorry!" Sarada let go of her father in panic.

"Sarada, stand back!" Karin order her daughter as she lowered her collar and presented her bare shoulder to her husband. Sasuke instantly bit down on her shoulder and Karin let out a yelp in pain...and maybe a touch of arousal as well, though Sarada didn't pick up on that.

"Sakura, hang in there!" Ino ran up to her best friend and started healing her. True, she may not be anywhere near Sakura's level, but hopefully she could heal up a few burns, at least enough for Sakura to handle the rest by herself.

"Naruto!" Hinata took her own place next to her former crush, healing him just as Ino was Sakura, and doing so with the exact same mindset. She could at least help him until the Nine-Tails kicked in and started doing his job.

"Dad, what happened in there?" Shinachiku asked in worry.

The orange-clad Hokage could barely groan as a response as he looked both to his son and goddaughter with the most sincere smirk he could muster in his current situation.

"Kabuto says 'hi.'"

* * *

There you go, yet another chapter in the can!

I said that I wanted to try bringing back some of the action this time, so I decided why not a prison break?! I hope I did a good enough job of showing off Sunako and what she can do with her own sand. I had to be careful since, due to her needing to conserve most of her chakra to use the Chakra Gem for the escape plan, I needed to limit the techniques she could use somewhat. That's another reason why I made this an in-and-out, limited casualties mission. Besides the fact that any ninja sent on a prison break assignment would naturally _want_ to call as little attention to themselves as possible, using techniques like, say, her father's sand armor for her defense would consume too much of her chakra. Besides, Gaara would want to avoid the enemy from learning that Sunagakure was involved in the prison break and wouldn't want any deaths lobbied against the village as a result of it.

I also hope its clear that she is taking out the guards so fast that they are not getting a good look at what is hitting them, thus they do not get to register that it is sand similar to Gaara's and thus make that connection...Of course, that was the _strategy_, it doesn't necessarily mean it will work, especially with how that last squad of guards were taken out at the end...

The scene with Sunako's clone tricking the two guards was inspired by a scene from "Avatar: The Last Airbender." In the episode "The Boiling Rock, Part 2," Sokka tricks a guard into releasing all of the prisoners into the yard in a very similar way.

But the action didn't stop there! Kabuto had a little surprise waiting for old Team 7 as well. So, yes, we got a good old fashioned outrunning the explosion scene. There are countless movies and other stories that do this, so try to imagine your favorite one and cite it as the reference here.

Kabuto's motives this time were, to me, a matter of common sense. Like Orochimaru he is interested in conducting mad scientist experiments and what could be more disturbing than the thought of him using Shinachiku and Sarada as his own personal guinea pigs? No wonder Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke got so pissed off!

It has been called to my attention that after the series Kabuto supposedly returned to the orphanage he came from, which I suppose helps explain why he is not at Orochimaru's side in "Gaiden." This...is entirely my fault. I completely forgot if anything about Kabuto's fate was revealed in the ending and, personally, his background wasn't of huge interest to me when it came out (no offense to any huge Kabuto fans out there). I don't feel too guilty though since his profile on Narutopedia says that after getting freed from the Infinite Tsukuyomi his whereabouts are unknown. If you need an explanation, lets just say that in this reality, Kabuto returned to the orphanage, and then something happened we don't know about that put him on this current path. Sorry if that's vague, but its the best I have for now.

The big twist that Kabuto can live long enough to heal himself even after being cut in half was kind of like my giving Ino mind reading abilities earlier in this story. No, it was never actually established that he can do that in the series (so far as I remember), but given his skill as a healer, his taking in Orochimaru's cells, and that device I added in of his experimenting with Karin's DNA, I decided that it made sense. I hope you guys were able to go along with it too.

I also have to own up to something: I almost forgot all about the scroll! The last time we saw it was Naruto showing it to Kabuto and then so much else had happened in the story since then that it fell out of focus. Still, once I remembered it, I realized that it would be the PERFECT bargaining tool for Kabuto to use against Naruto. Talk about a happy accident!

I think that's about all I've got for this time. Thank you all again for your support, and I look forward to seeing you all again next time. Until then, see ya!


	29. Chapter 28--A Bit of Good News

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the newest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Before we begin this chapter, a note about last week's chapter. Some of my most loyal reviewers, such as SilentRaider52, maxslayer10 and theIrishWriter, had a few questions about last week's events, particularly why Kabuto was still a villain after he supposedly decided to go back to the orphanage where he grew up at the end of the story, why Sasuke didn't just use his Susanoo or eye abilities to shield them from the explosion, why Naruto didn't use the Nine Tail's chakra, or why Sunako's sand abilities wouldn't instantly incriminate Sunagakure of the prison escape.

I humbly admit that these were details that I overlooked the first time and since those reviews came in I have gone back in and worked to provide quick explanations for some of these things. You can read Chapter 27 again, including my ending commentary, to get those answers, but the long and short of it is that Sasuke could not form his Susanoo because the underground space they were in was too small to contain an avatar of that size, Naruto didn't have enough time to give Sasuke or Sakura some of his Nine-Tail's chakra, and Sasuke _did_ shield them with his kekki genki but it was a split second too late (hence the burns).

As for Kabuto, as I explained in the post-chapter discussion, I hadn't remembered that detail from Kabuto's backstory when I wrote the chapter and, frankly, the article about him on Narutopedia doesn't confirm his official fate after the war; it only says that after being freed from the Infinite Tsukuyomi his whereabouts were unknown. The best explanation I can offer is that maybe he did visit the orphanage again, and the something else happened, we don't know what, that put him on this current path.

Lastly is the Sunako issue. The idea is that she knocked them out so quickly that the guards never had the opportunity to get a clear look at who was attacking them. But if it makes anyone feel any better, just read until the end of this week's chapter.

I think that's everything I've got, so with that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 28: A Bit of Good News**

"Jeez!" Ino protested as she continued healing her best friend. "What the heck happened in there?"

"Kabuto tried to blackmail us," Sakura answered, signaling that she was okay enough to heal the rest of her burns on her own. "He said he would give us the antidotes only if we agreed to offer up Shinachiku and Sarada as test subject for his latest experiment."

_"WHAT?!"_ Nearly everyone else there save for the three former teammates themselves were horrified once they heard what the Snake's Sannin's former apprentice was plotting. The two children themselves were especially horrified, images flashing through their minds of countless horrific, disgusting violations being done to their bodies.

"Naruto, is that true?" Hinata asked as she continued healing her former love, before he put his hand up to stop her and let Kurama deal with the rest.

"Yeah, it's true. I'm not sure what would have happened if Sasuke hadn't shown up...By the way, what the hell was that about?! I thought I gave you orders to stay here and watch over the team with Shikamaru?"

Sasuke merely rolled his eyes as he removed his mouth from his wife's shoulder. "Oh please dobe! When have you ever been able to stop me from doing what I wanted to?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his best friend coldly. "The Valley of the End comes to mind."

Sasuke merely stared at the blonde for a few seconds before reclaiming his wife's shoulder.

"That sick son of a bitch!" Kiba growled.

"Kabuto!" Karin shouted in fury, briefly stopping her healing of her husband. "That bastard was going to turn my little girl into a damned lab rat!"

"A bit hypocritical of you isn't it Karin?" Jūgo questioned. "Weren't you one of Orochimaru's most loyal followers when you were younger? As I recall you yourself were involved in what was done both to myself and Kimimaro, were you not?" The orange haired Taka member didn't need to change the tone of his voice in the slightest to hammer that point home.

Karin looked down in shame, "Touché...Still, that was a long time ago. I've turned my back on Orochimaru and I'm a different person now."

"I suppose becoming a parent changes you," Suigetsu surmised. "At least it taught you to mellow out a little bit and to stop being such a two-faced bitch—OWWW!"

The swordsman of the mist was sent flying into a nearly tree following a furious punch from the red-haired woman. "You ought to know by now _not_ to talk that way about me!"

"Yeah, he really should," Sasuke agreed with a smirk. He had let go of her neck for only a moment and when he bit down again to finish healing his wounds, Karin let out a moan.

"Oh jeez! Get a room you two!"

The company all turned to the source of the voice and saw none other than their 'friend' Randamu standing before them with his arms crossed in annoyance.

"What the hell you guys?! I make a couple of jokes and you all ditch me, just like that?!"

"Pretty much," Naruto answered in annoyance.

"How did you get here anyway? How did you know the exact spot we were all going to?" Sarada asked in realization.

"HAHAHA! That my dear is a secret you will never know...! ...No seriously, the writer of this fanfic couldn't figure it out either."

"_Fanfic?!_ What are you talking about?!" Tenten demanded in desperation.

"Like I said earlier, nothing about that man makes any sense," Karin groaned.

Sasuke, who by now had completely healed all of his burns, got up with the aid of his wife and faced his old friend. At the same time, Sakura had finished healing herself and was working on healing the last of her husband's wounds, aiding in the work that that the Nine Tails was already doing.

"You know," Sakura said, "you should probably not be so rough on Sasuke. After all, neither of us may even be alive if he hadn't used his kekki genki to shield us from that explosion."

"I know, I know. If he had been a split second later than we may have all been in worse shape than we are now—AGH!"

"Don't be a baby! I'm almost done!" Sakura kept up her healing, putting her hand underneath his shirt to heal what burns may be on his stomach...and when she did she felt it.

"Naruto," Sakura asked in worry, "what's this deep cut on your chest?!"

"Huh...? Oh that? I think that's from when my dad cut me with his kunai earlier." The blonde's voice drifted as he was forced to think back to that uncomfortable memory.

Sakura easily picked up on her lover's discomfort, "I-I'm sorry...But still, shouldn't Kurama have healed that by now?"

"I would have thought so. I guess the fur ball must be getting lazy of something."

Sakura chuckled to herself as she began healing the wound herself. "Maybe we're all just getting old."

"It's not the years—AGH!" Naruto let out a gasp as his wife healed up his wound. "...Its the mileage."

"Technically speaking, mid thirties is still a perfectly appropriate age for physical activity and to engage in shinobi operations. On average, one need not worry about the negative effects such activity will have on the body until at least their late thirties or early forties."

The married couple narrowed their eyes in annoyance at their old friend who had decided to butt in on their personal moment. Naruto rose the middle finger on his bandaged right hand in mock defiance. "Thanks for the words of encouragement Sai, really! You always did know just how to spoil the moment between me and Sakura!"

Sai closed his eyes and smiled. "Always a pleasure dickless."

Naruto went into an over-the-top fury at the comment. "Hey! Who the heck are you calling dickless?! I thought I told you never to call me that again?!"

"Oh I'm sorry Naruto. You're correct; I should know better by now after that performance you and Sakura put on the night of yours' and Sakura's engagement. Who knew that Ugly could be such a wild—"

Sai was cut off by a furious falcon punch delivered by Sakura herself. The pink-haired woman was fuming both in anger and embarrassment.

"Damn it Sai!" Sakura shouted. "Do you _really_ have to bring that night up right now! Shit! No matter where I go and what I do I am _never_ going to live that night down!"

Naruto chuckled to himself before putting on a content smile. His mind drifted back to one of the greatest days of his life. It was the day he finally fulfilled his dream of becoming Hokage. It was the day he finally proposed marriage to the love of his life. And it was the night that the two of them made love for the first time, a night that would ultimately give them their son.

A perverted grin formed on the blonde man's face as his mind drifted back to everything they did that night. All of the passionate kissing, the stripping, the foreplay, her moaning and screaming his name in pleasure...And that was saying nothing about the number of positions and all the kinky ideas that they tried that night; remaining celibate for about five years takes its toll on a young couple in love. Sakura had exposed a side of herself that night that no one else in the world would ever get to see, and he _loved_ it! They made love for hours and hours, both of them barely getting any sleep for work the next day. And yet neither of them regretted a single second of that experience, or any time they made love since then. In fact, the only thing that either of them regretted was their forgetting to put up a silencing jutsu in the wake of their lust, alerting all of their party guests to what was going on that night.

Naruto remembered one time, not long after their engagement, when he came home from work to find his fiancé waiting for him up in their bedroom. She was laying spread out on the bed and was wearing absolutely nothing but a sexy smile, her engagement ring and his Hokage hat...

"Um, dad? Are you okay?"

Naruto was snapped out of his daze at the sound of his son's voice. "Huh?! Oh yeah son, sorry about that!"

"You looked kind of out of it for second; what were you thinking about?"

"N-Nothing! It was nothing son!"

"...Okay..." Shinachiku decided to drop the subject in case it was about something he _really_ didn't want to know about. Naruto was grateful, as it meant that he could refocus his mind on the present and give 'Little Naruto' a chance to calm down and relax before anybody noticed...

"Randamu," Sasuke stated, "We're sorry for leaving you behind, but its good that you were able to catch up with us."

"Hey, don't 'fret," the masked missing nin answered back. "I'm just glad to see that whatever nastiness happened here didn't get you guys killed. But then again, I suppose that no force of evil in the Sound Village or anywhere else in the world can ever hope to defeat the Ambiguously Gay Duo of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha!

Both men blushed red as a ripe tomato as totally disgusted expressions were plastered on each of their faces. They both shouted in unison, **"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL US?!"**

Sakura, Karin, Shinachiku and Sarada were all blushing as well, the kids being especially grossed out. All of their friends were either blushing or laughing at what they had just heard.

"Oh come on you two," Randamu repliied. "Its not like people haven't been saying that about you two since you were Genin or anything!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Naruto demanded.

"Well you've got to admit Naruto that with that rivalry you two used to have and how obsessed you used to be with bringing Sasuke home...some people may have interpreted things the wrong way..."

Sasuke spoke up next, "The dobe and I were rivals and now we're best friends. That's it! And that all we _ever_ were!"

"Yeah I know, I'm just making fun! I know you two aren't really—" Randamu make a gesture with his fingers and out of nowhere and for absolutely no reason some music started playing throughout the forest, along with a really annoying voice singing:

_The Ambiguously Gay Duo  
The Ambiguously Gay Duo  
They are taking on evil, come what may  
They are fighting all crime to save the day  
They're extremely close in an ambiguous way  
They're ambiguously gay  
They're ambiguously gay  
The Ambiguously Gay Duo_  
_  
The Ambiguously Gay Duo! Tonight's episode: "Are They Or Aren't They?"_

At that point he started laughing to himself again. "HAHAHA! _Damn_ I love Hammerspace theme songs!"

Naruto and Sasuke were completely humiliated. They both looked at each other in disgust as they both shared the same thought that did not need to be spoken aloud between the two men: _"How do you want to beat the crap out of this guy?"_

* * *

"_Mom?!_ Is that you?!"

"Yes! Yes Shikadai it me!" Temari had tears of joy in her eyes as she ran up to her son and wrapped him in a bone crushing hug.

"Whoa! Whoa! Okay mom! That's great. I love you too...Please let go of me now, if the others saw this it'd be so troublesome."

The wind mistress groaned at her son's attitude and let him go. "Fine! Jeez, your're a spitting image of your father!"

"Shikadai," Kakashi spoke up, "where is your uncle?"

The boy noticed the rest of the company that were gathered in the back yard. "Lord Sixth! Gomen, I almost forgot that all the rest of you were here."

"Well we are," Yamato stated. "So where is Gaara?"

"My uncle is at his office right now, but he trusted me to look after Hanami and the others while Sunako was sent on her retrieval mission."

"Where are the children right now?" Tsunade questioned.

"They're inside the house. Wait here and I'll go get them."

Shikadai went back inside the house and no more than a minute later he came back out with the rest of the children, many of whom were ecstatic to see some of the parents alive and well, not to mention out of prison. Chōchō was embraced by her mother, who in an uncharacteristic moment of softness, expressed emotion at finally being reunited with her daughter again. Inojin couldn't help but look at the scene with a tinge of sadness as, unlike his two teammates, both of his parents were away on the mission to retrieve the Seventh and his wife. The pale faced, blonde haired Genin could not help but feel a bit left out.

The rest of the children were all happy to see that the adults that they were forced to leave behind were all safe and sound. The adults, in turn, were relieved that the children made it to some place safe, and were even more relieved that dear Hanami was still in one piece.

"I hate to be the one to break up the moment," Konohamaru interrupted, "but would someone _please_ explain to me exactly how the heck Sunako got us from Konoha to Suna in a single second?"

At this the auburn haired sand maiden decided to speak up. "Sarutobi-san, I was able to bring all of you here because of this."

She held out her hand and showed them a familiar glowing green gem.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kakashi asked in disbelief.

"Hai, it is one of the seven Chakra Gems. This one has been recovered and in the care of the Hidden Sand Village since the end of the war. This one in particular grants whoever holds it the power of instantaneous movement to wherever they can imagine, given that they can clearly picture the place they wish to go and if they have enough chakra for the journey."

"That's incredible," Shizune said in wonder.

"So this is the kind of power that Naruto and Sakura's son has gone in search of?" Gai questioned.

"No, the one that Shinachiku seeks has a different power I know not about, but whatever the case it is surely something incredibly valuable."

"This is great and all," Ōkami interrupted, "but now that all of us are here, what the heck are we supposed to do now?!"

"My brother has a point," Tsuki added. "We still need to get word out to Hanami's parents and we have no idea where they are."

"Actually, Sunako and I came up with a plan to deal with that," Shikadai stated.

The others all looked at them both is surprise as his cousin finished for him. "Indeed, I took our plan to my father this morning before I was given my mission. With any luck, our plan has been put into effect already..."

* * *

Randamu was beaten, bloodied, cut in several places, and left slumping against a tree. Such is the price you pay for making gay jokes about the Seventh Hokage and the last survivor of the Uchiha clan...Don't worry though, his advanced healing factor was already kicking in and he knew that he would be up and back to his usual self again in no time.

"Excuse me," Rock Lee spoke to everyone, "but does anyone happen to have the time?"

"Let me check," Sasuke said as he got his phone out. He hadn't had it on very much lately so for once it was at full power. He turned it on and received a big surprise. "Hmm...that's strange."

"What strange sweetie?" Karin asked in curiosity.

"It looks like I've got a message."

The majority of the company looked surprised by this, while others like Shikamaru and Shino appeared suspicious.

"Maybe you should think twice about answering it Sasuke," Shino advised. "It could be some sort of tracking scheme set up by Taka."

"Maybe..." Sasuke looked at the readout on his phone for a moment as he took it in. "...Or maybe it could be a message from an ally of ours...Naruto, you're supposed to be the leader here, what do you think?"

Naruto thought about it for a few seconds, weighing in all of the possibilities. but in the end, a message was a message, so it might as well be worth checking in to see what it was all about.

"Open it."

Sasuke opened the message sent to his phone and read it to himself. "What the...its from the Kazekage."

Naruto reacted in shock. "Gaara? Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"Why would Gaara be calling you Sasuke?" Sakura questioned.

"I don't have a clue."

"Well, what does the message say?" Kiba asked impatiently.

Sasuke started scrolling his eyes across the text of the mysterious message, reading it aloud to his family and all of his friends.

"_Dear Sasuke Uchiha, this is Gaara of the Desert, Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure. If you are seeing this than I am obligated to inform you upfront that the contents of this message are not intended for you_—Wait, what?"

Now everybody was looking at one another in total confusion.

"Hold on a second," Suigetsu insisted. "You mean that the Kazekage sent a private message to Sasuke's phone and it wasn't even meant for him?"

Ino shook her own head in bewilderment. "That doesn't make any sense."

Sarada spoke up next, "What does the message say next dad?"

Sasuke kept reading, _"...The contents of this message are not intended for you. This is a private message meant for_—" Sasuke had to stop himself in surprise.

"Who is it for?" Karin asked her husband.

The Uchiha turned his head toward his blonde haired godson, "It's for Shinachiku."

Everybody gasped both in shock and confusion at this revelation. All except for the boy himself; his eyes glossed over in amazement before coming to again.

"_Me?_ Why would the Kazekage want to talk to me?"

The boy's parents looked at each other and whispered several things to one another before turning back.

"Sasuke," Sakura spoke up, "what does the rest of the message say?"

He raven haired man continued reading. "_In the wake of recent events concerning the boy's parents, it has been brought to my attention that you have taken the boy into your custody for an important mission outside of the Hidden Leaf Village. If the boy is still currently in your care, please allow him to read remainder of this message and to respond accordingly._"

Everyone turned to the boy once again, waiting to see what he would do. The boy himself turned to face his father who, upon sharing eye contact, nodded his head to his son to give him his blessing.

The boy got up and walked up to his godfather, taking the phone from him and reading the mysterious message on the screen. He read for a number of seconds but which felt like hours due to all the mystery and tension in the air.

As Shinachiku read the message he'd received from one of his father's closest friends, his eyes glossed over once again, only this time it was the kind of shock that filled one with happiness. Tears of joy started forming in the corners of his eyes as he read on.

Sakura, predictably, was concerned at her son's sudden emotional change in behavior. "Sweetheart what's wrong?"

The boy looked to the woman and nearly choked up. "Its...its Hanami. She's alive!"

The parents were speechless, frozen in place for but a moment before they let out tears of joy of their own and embraced each other in a enormous hug.

"Naruto! Our baby girl is—"

"I know Sakura. I know." For the second time that day, Naruto could not believe how happy he was.

The rest of the company were all happy for them, the women even getting emotional. Sarada wasn't crying but she was smiling in happiness, at least until she noticed a certain blonde haired boy that was letting tears fall down his face.

"Shinachiku, are you alright?"

The boy wiped the tears our of his eyes. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. I just...well..."

"We all miss her."

The boy smiled, "Arigato Sarada."

"Shinachiku," Naruto called out getting his son's attention, "what does the rest of the message say?"

The boy recomposed himself and went back to reading again. "_To Shinachiku Uzumaki, this is Gaara of the Desert. We have met before and I am a dear friend of your father's. I am writing to you to inform you that your sister, Hanami Uzumaki, is alive and well. She is currently taking refuge here, in the Hidden Sand Village. With her are several of your friends: my nephew Shikadai Nara, Inojin Yamanaka, Chōchō Akimichi, Ōkami and Tsuki Hyūga, Burandon Lee, and Bagu Aburame. All of the children are staying at my personal residence with myself and my daughter. Rest assured they are all safe._"

The boy had to stop reading as he took all of that in. He also could not resist looking at the reactions of the rest of the adults, many of whom were getting quite emotional that their children were safe in Gaara's hands. He went back to reading again.

"_...Having said all of that, there is a situation regarding your sister that you need to know. If by some chance either of your parents are currently with you or you should happen to encounter them, please share this information with them._"

The atmosphere suddenly got very nervous. Shinachiku looked to both of his parents in worry. None of the three family members knew what to say and they had to brace themselves for the worst. Taking his wife's hand in his own, Naruto nodded to his son to finish reading.

"_...You're sister's is safe in my custody, however, before aiding in her escape from Konoha she was apparently injected with an unknown serum that has completely negated her access to her chakra network..._"

The boy was forced to stop reading as he literally felt his blood run cold. Those bastards...those Taka animals...they _put something_ inside his little sister. The young man went from being terrified to getting really, **really** angry!

Naruto and Sakura heard what the message had to say and while Sakura put her free hand to her mouth as tears fell once again, Naruto clenched his free hand into a tight fist. He could feel the Nine-Tails' chakra getting stronger and stronger within him. The whisker marks on his face were growing deeper and his teeth were just beginning to turn into fangs. The man's eyes were turning into slits. The others could all feel Kurama's chakra spiking and even if it wasn't, Naruto's easily understandable fury was there pain as day written all over his face.

By all accounts, he should probably have entered Nine-Tail's mode by now...But after what happened in the Hidden Whirlpool Village he was not going to loose control again. So, with absolutely every single fiber of strength he had, he fought to keep the fox at bay. He could let the beast out on the ones that laid their disgusting fingers on his little girl, but loosing control now would do nothing to help Hanami.

The others all looked very sad. By this point they all were aware of the mysterious serum that severed Hanami's chakra, but to think that this new enemy would use it on an innocent little girl not even out of the Academy yet...Well, it was enough to make their blood boil.

Karin, Ino and Hinata were especially pissed; anybody who hurt their goddaughter and surrogate niece were due to get the absolute worst ass whooping in the history of mankind!

The others all looked sad or angry, but in Shino's case he just felt guilty. It was under his watch that she must have been taken. How the hell could he have been so blind?! If he had just been more alert than this would never have happened to her!

As for Sasuke...he wasn't showing any emotion on his face because he was having too many different emotions at once. He was happy that his goddaughter was alive and safe in Suna, furious at what Taka had done to her, guilty that it may all somehow be his fault, sorry for the girl's entire family, and contemplative over what their next move should be...It was a miracle that the man didn't come down with an enormous headache!

Sarada could only gasp at what the message had revealed about Hanami. She had known the girl all her life and even though, like her brother, she didn't get to see her as often as she would like, she always considered her a friend and knew full well how much she meant to Shinachiku.

Looking to the boy, she felt something weird coming off of him. It felt like a spike in chakra, but a different kind of chakra. It was almost as if a second source of chakra completely separate from his own was becoming aroused. She'd recalled feeling something like it before, from her uncle. It almost reminded her of...

'No...No that's impossible. It can't be...'

Shaking those ludicrous thoughts from her mind, she placed a hand on the furious young man's shoulder, catching his attention and calming him down before he crushed to the phone in his hand.

The two children shared a look, one without words but one that said everything that needed to be said through their eyes.

After a very long minute of high tension cooler heads finally prevailed when Sakura got a hold of herself and whispered something in her husband's ear. The blonde's eyes widened in realization...Kabuto's antidote! He'd given them two of each, one for immediate use and the other for mass production. It was _perfect!_

"Shinachiku," Sakura at last broke the silence, "is there anything else to the message?"

The boy looked at his godfather's phone one more time to read what was left.

"_...We do not know what exactly this serum was that did this, nor the true identity of the enemy that had done this to her, but apart from her chakra being severed she appears to be in perfectly good health. I regret that I was unable to check her into the village hospital so as not to expose that I am harboring the daughter of two wanted fugitives. Besides, if one of Konoha's own had done this to her, I was not sure who to trust._"

Naruto listened to this and smiled to himself. 'Good going Gaara! Way to use your head! ...Jeez old friend, I owe you more than I think I can ever repay! When this whole mess is over with I'd like to buy you a drink!'

Shinachiku kept reading. "_If you are reading this message, please respond back to me as soon as possible with your current location. From there we will be able to negotiate an appropriate meeting place for immediate transport to Sunagakure. Thank you for your time. Signed, Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage._"

Everybody looked to Naruto and Sakura to see what would happen next. Naruto, for his part, didn't need to think twice about what to do. He stood up and walked over to the boy. "Son, let me see that phone."

Shinachiku wasted no time handing it to him, then watched in joyful excitement as his father began typing up a reply.

The orange-clad ninja turned to his best friend, "I hope you don't mind if I borrow this Sasuke?"

"Don't worry about it dobe. Let's just work on getting your daughter back."

"Wait! Are we sure about this? How do we know that all of this isn't just some elaborate trap set up by Taka to—?" The usually brilliant Shikamaru did not get to finish voicing his theory as everyone, literally _everyone_, was giving him the glare of death for even _suggesting_ not taking immediate action. "Never mind."

Shinachiku looked on with a huge smile on his face. He felt so happy right now. His sister was alive and come hell or high water they were going to do something to help her! He had made her a promise to always come back to her and now he was going to keep that promise!

'Hang in there Hanami! Mom, dad and your big brother are all coming to get you! _Believe it!_'

* * *

Gaara was sitting in his office going over his usual paperwork and sipping from his cup of coffee. He had just sent his message to Sasuke Uchiha about an hour ago as part of his daughter and nephew's elaborate but brilliant plan...Now he just needed to pray that all of it paid off.

Suddenly he felt a vibration in his pocket. He pulled his phone out and found that he had a message. Opening his phone up, he read the message...

...A gigantic smile appeared on his face. It wasn't from the boy or even Uchiha, but reading who _had_ sent it made Gaara feel so pleased! The plan worked even better than he'd hoped! Reading the message to himself, he not only learned Naruto's location but also how many others were with him...quite a large company of allies.

Thinking over the location the former Hokage described, the Kazekage came up with the next step of the plan. "Alright, I know where we can meet." With that he began typing his reply...

* * *

"What do you mean they've escaped?!"

Uragi was called to the Strict Correctional Facility and he was **livid!** Within the span of a few minutes all nine of their prisoners had escaped in, reportedly, the blink of an eye. He looked at the iron prison bars ripped from their hinges; whatever had done this must have been very strong indeed.

The interim-Hokage put his head in his hand in frustration, then let out a deep sigh. "Alright look, tell me exactly what happened. Who is responsible for the break in?"

"We're not sure sir," one of the guards said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"My Lord, the guards came to and nearly all of them say that they were knocked unconscious so quickly that they never had the opportunity to make out who the intruder was."

Something about that statement caught the councilman's attention. "_Knocked unconscious?_ You mean no one was killed?"

"No sir, dozens of guards knocked were into unconsciousness but there was not a single casualty."

Uragi took this all in, 'That's strange. What would be the point of sparing the men's lives...? Perhaps there is some sense of preserving life in this world after all...?'

"Wait a minute!" Uragi spoke up, "You said that _nearly_ all of the guards were knocked unconscious?"

"Yes sir! Those that were able to stay awake long enough to notice something claim that the briefly saw a young girl with auburn hair breaking the prisoners out. They claim that she used a gourd of sand as an defensive and offensive weapon. They all lost consciousness too, but before doing so one of them claimed he was able to see the company disappear from sight in what he described as a 'flash of emerald light.'"

Uragi's mind was going a mile a minute. Now not only did he have a suspicion who was involved with this break in, but he may also have learned the whereabouts of yet another potential tool for Taka's endeavors.

"Should we send a platoon to comb the woodlands outside the village my Lord?"

"No...no don't bother! They're all long gone by now. Let's just wait and see. This could still work to our advantage in the long run."

"As you command my Lord." The guard slammed his fist into his chest in salute. "Hail Taka!"

As the guard took his leave, Uragi took one more look around the empty cell block and smirked to himself. It was amazing how even the most minor of defeats could sometimes lead to the most important of victories...

* * *

And with that we conclude another chapter!

I must really be an evil bastard! Even in a chapter with a title like "A Bit of Good News," even in a chapter that is supposed to be all about the potential for these families to all come together again, I _still_ couldn't resist putting in a dark bit of foreshadowing at the end!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that, and I hope I got all of the complex shifts in emotions everyone is feeling, especially with Naruto, Sakura and Shinachiku.

I also hope you were amused by Naruto's little fantasy sequence. I tried to imagine what would be the most arousing image for him at that point in his life and I figured that the newly appointed Hokage coming home to find his fiancé laying on their bed completely naked save for her engagement ring and his Hokage hat would definitely turn him on. LOL!

Now for the references! The line Naruto says as Sakura is healing him "Its not the years, it's the mileage," was a reference to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Indy says the same memorable line to Marion as they are in their cabin on the pirate's ship. I thought it was a great line for Naruto to use as he and the woman he loves are getting older, but still is the daylight of their years (remember that Naruto, Sakura and their friends are all supposed to be in their mid thirties by this point; they're FAR from retirement age).

Once again Raundamu makes a Fourth Wall reference and this time it might be the most random and hilarious one yet! If there are any NaruSasu fans reading this, please don't take it the wrong way, but I couldn't resist depicting a fully grown Naruto and Sasuke react to the longstanding gay rumors surrounding them. Obviously we know that they weren't true, but equating them to SNL's TV Funhouse's "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" was just plain hilarious! There's at least one AMV of it on YouTube if you're curious or need a good laugh. I also found another one where Ryuko and Mako from "Kill la Kill" are depicted as "The Ambiguously Gay Duo."

By the way, the embarrassed look the two of them share at the end of that scene was somewhat inspired by a scene from the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" episode called "The Ember Island Players." Team Avatar are watching a play about their exploits and at one point they see a hilariously botched portrayal of the Blue Spirit episode. Aang and Zuko react to this by looking at each other in humiliation. Try to imagine Naruto and Sasuke sharing a similar look at the end of this scene.

So yeah, Sunako and Shikadai's plan worked! I was glad to finally get the ball rolling on that front. Now we just need to see how all the parties will come together.

Hopefully you caught onto Sarada's sensing how something was off about Shinachiku's chakra as he was getting mad. I'm not going to say what that's about, just more things to consider as we go forward.

It think that's about all I've got to say for this time. I hope you all enjoyed it and until next time, see ya!


	30. Author's Commentary 2

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi here with another Author's Commentary.

Those of you who have been keeping up with my writings and have been following _Naruto Gaiden_ will know that as of today that series has, apparently, come to an end. If you have read the chapter then you've probably already guessed what this commentary is going to be about. If not, then I want to warn you that there WILL be spoilers ahead. So if you don't care to have me to ruin the ending of _Gaiden_ for you, then **please** stop reading this now, go find the chapter (or at least read the summary of it on Narutopedia), and then come back...

...Still here? ...Okay then...

Well its official folks! Sarada truly is Sakura's daughter after all, meaning that, as I feared, this entire storyline of calling her parentage into question and the "reveal" that Karin was her real mother was just a big fat troll on Kishimoto's part! The final image of the chapter was a brand new photo taken of the family, a REAL one this time, before Sasuke leaves his wife and daughter AGAIN for his next mission, whatever that is!

But I know what you're thinking? "What about that DNA test that confirmed that Karin was Sarada's mother?" Well, just as I suspected in past commentaries, Suigetsu somehow got the test wrong (how he did that I have no idea). In truth, the reason why the village has no records of Sarada's birth is because Sakura insisted on going with Sasuke on one of his away missions and she gave birth to Sarada while on said mission. Karin ended up being the one to help her deliver the child, which she confirms by the fact that she still has the umbilical cord in her lab...Yeah, I don't even want to KNOW what kind of possible human experiments or bizarre "Red String of Fate" symbolism Kishimoto has in his head with THAT one! And as for Sarada's glasses...just a gift from Karin. And why she needs them in the first place when she is supposed to have the freaking Sharingan...not explained at all.

As for the rest of the chapter, the Shin Uchiha clones are defeated and they end up getting taken into the Konoha Orphanage where they are being cared for by...Kabuto...Oh yeah, and Chōchō seems to FINALLY be accepting that Chōji really is her dad!

...Oh, and I almost forgot, Sarada now has a dream of becoming Hokage someday! Whether that is because she idolizes Naruto or because her dad sought to become Hokage when he switched sides during the war, or some other reason entirely that we don't know about I have no idea!

So how do I feel about this? ...Well, as you can imagine I am disappointed! This whole ten chapter mini-series was just what I feared it would be, a way for Kishimoto to troll us fans who doubted (and many of us who _still_ doubt) the SasuSaku romance and who noted that Sarada looked more like Karin than Sakura. It was also, obviously, a way to further promote the upcoming Boruto movie...which is funny since, as I've stated before, Bolt was barely in this story.

What does this series tell us about SasuSaku? Well, it is trying to tell us that Sasuke cares more about his family than we thought he did, but that even after finally seeing his daughter again he spends maybe one night with them and then leaves again soon afterward. He taps Sarada's forehead just as he did to Sakura in 699 and as Sakura had done to her in a flashback scene in this series, and then he leaves. He says goodbye to Sakura the same way as in 699, not with an "I love you," but by dissing her, causing her to have the exact same disappointed expression as last time. So what we have here is a family where the wife is eternally loyal to her husband who, even if he does care about them, is too preoccupied to spend any real time with them.

I suppose I can give Kishimoto credit for not letting it get as bad as it was appearing to be leading up to this, but this is still far from the happy family life that Sakura likely imagined for herself, or, as I have been writing in my own work, the one she probably _would_ have had if she had chosen Naruto instead. I realize that I am not the creator and, at the end of the day, I can write all of the alternate reality possibilities I want and they will do nothing to sway the creator, but I still have the right to be disappointed in this don't I?

As for what this ending means for my future work...I suddenly have a serious logic problem on my hands! When this mislead of Karin being Sarada's mother first came out I felt an amazing sense of vindication for going with that idea when I began "Shinachiku's First Adventure," and then REALLY proud of myself when that DNA test seemed to confirm it. But now that all of that has been proven wrong, I have to question if any of it makes sense now. Could Sasuke and Karin have had a daughter that still looked like Sarada does and given her the same name in an alternate reality? Sure, and I guess that is the way I will have to look at it.

But here's the thing: I have been considering a sort of dimensional crossover idea where the characters from my stories meet the ones from the canon ending, and if Sarada exists in two separate continuities with the DNA of two different mothers, and both of them look exactly the same...well, I'd need to do some explaining for that! It probably wouldn't be too hard, since the Sarada in my SFA continuity is already living a very different life than her canon counterpart...But yeah, the genetics thing...

And then there's the appearance of Kabuto in this final chapter. Alright, I admit it, I guessed totally wrong there! You guys who questioned why he didn't go back to the orphanage when I have forgotten all about that detail were apparently right on the money, while I decided to instead keep him in the villain role. I suppose the only way to rectify this is the same vague way I did in one of the most recent chapters: maybe in the SFA timeline Kabuto did return to the orphanage and then something else happened that did NOT in the canon timeline that sent him on a darker path? I know that this is vague, but I really don't have much of an explanation for it right now...nor for why my entire Taka conspiracy is happening in my timeline when, obviously, it doesn't exist at all in canon, instead being replaced by this Shin Uchiha character and his "sons" and whoever the big villain of the Boruto movie will be.

I really don't know if I have any more to add than that, but I do think that some sort of crossover idea with both timelines could yield some fascinating story possibilities...But that is the ONLY real positive I have to make about this.

I will continue writing NaruSaku stories despite all of this, and I hope the rest of you do too. We need to be strong and take pride in ourselves. Remember, canon can hurt but a fandom never truly dies unless the entirety of it totally seizes to believe in it. I want to be fair and issue my congratulations to the SasuSaku fan base for getting what they wanted, even though I obviously do not agree with it and feel it to be a very flawed relationship.

I think that's all I've got. A real shame that it had to end this way, but time moves on and besides, the beauty of fanfiction is that while with the official story we are at the mercy of the creators, this fan-controlled medium gives us the freedom to share our own ideas for these characters and share them with the rest of the world!

So I guess that's it; sorry there's no official chapter this time. But I do hope that all of my reader's keep coming back to check out my work and keep enjoying them. After all, you guys are half the reason I do this.

Until next time, see ya...and long live NaruSaku!


	31. Chapter 29--Together Again

Hello everybody! Its me, thesaiyanjedi, here with, FINALLY, the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

Let me just say this up front...I'M SORRY! I swear I did not anticipate my other story, "Naruto's Big Day," to drag on for as long as it did, and I know that a lot of you may have been wondering if I would ever get back to this story. But don't worry, I am back now and I have the latest chapter right here for you to read.

That being said, because I have been out of the vibe of this story for so long, I am not sure it is represents my best work. To that end, this chapter is is going to be purely about emotion and not about action. In particular, this chapter is meant to highlight the relationship between two characters.

Okay, I've kept you guys waiting long enough (in more ways than one). I'll just say thank you all so much for your patience and and I hope I can make it worth it for you guys.

So, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 29: Together Again**

'I can't believe we are here again.'

Sakura was at a loss for words as she, her husband, her old crush and dear friend, their children, and all of their friends were all together again. The problem was, they were together in a place that nobody especially wanted to be in, particularly not the two men in her life.

They were all gathered in the Valley of the End, the sight of not only the legendary duel between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, but on a far more personal level, it was also the sight of both of Naruto and Sasuke's epic battles. The deep scar in the Earth was a memorial to the original battle that took place here and the utterly decimated statues were the leftovers from the Seventh Hokage's and the Uchiha clan survivor's last battle here.

Naruto and Sakura had already passed through this place once before as they were in pursuit of Orochimaru's secret lair. Neither of them was happy to be there, nor were they now...For the record, Sasuke wasn't wholly comfortable with the scenery either.

For the children however, it was a surreal experience. Both of them had read about those great battles in Naruto's book, but neither of them had even seen this place in person before. It was stunning, haunting, and disparate all at the same time.

"Dad?" Sarada called out to her father.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Is...is this place...?"

Sasuke shared a momentary glance with his wife before he let out a sigh and nodded his head. "Yes Sarada, this is the place where your Uncle Naruto and I fought each other after we defeated Kaguya during the war."

He took notice of where the two children were standing. "In fact, you and Shinachiku are standing on the exact spots where Naruto and I rested after our fight."

They looked down at their feet and got a cold shiver up their spines as they realized they were standing on large reddish stains, somehow still just barely ingrained into the ground, even after seventeen years of rain should have long since washed any and all traces away.

"Then..." Shinashiku started asking with a lump in his throat, "Then these stains are...?"

"Yes son," Naruto answered, "those are from the pools of blood left behind when your uncle and I lost our arms."

The two kids quickly jumped from the spots they were standing on in disgust. But then they noticed something curious about the stains in question. They were ever so conveniently shaped in the form of two arms joined together, like two hands coming together.

The two children were broken out of their fixation when they heard a voice call out to all to them. "Hey you guys, I think I see something!"

Chōji was right, there was a figure approaching them covered in a dark brown cloak.

"You sure this is the right place?" Tenten questioned as she got out some of her weapons, as were the others.

"This is where he said he was going to meet us," Naruto said. "And he said he would not be long after I sent him the message of our arrival."

"But how the hell could he have gone from his home all the way here in under an hour? That's impossible!"

"I don't know Kiba. We'll get those answers later."

Indeed they would, but now was not that time. Right now the company was being approached by a hooded stranger and they could not say for sure whether it really was the one they were here to meet or not.

The figure stopped in front of them and said nothing. There was a tense silence for several seconds, a silence so stark you could hear a pen drop...

...At least, until Naruto smiled as he broke that silence. "Its good to see you again Gaara."

The mysterious figure pulled back the hood of his cloak, revealing that it was, indeed, the Fifth Kazekage himself. "You recognized it really was me by sensing my chakra, didn't you Naruto?"

"Yep!"

The two friends, brothers in arms in a sense that they both shared a kind of childhood trauma that none of their piers could possibly relate to (save maybe Killer B, wherever he was now), approached one another and shook hands. But then Naruto caught the Sand ninja off guard when he wrapped him into a tight, emotional hug.

"Thank you..." he whispered quietly into his friend's ear. "Thank you for saving my daughter...You're...you're a true friend Gaara, and I don't know how I can even _begin_ to repay you for this!"

Gaara merely accepted his old friend's emotional gratitude. "Think nothing of it old friend. It was the least I could do after everything you've done for me."

They broke the hug as Naruto dried the tears that were just beginning to form in his eyes. "Arigato Gaara...tell you what, how about after all this is over I buy you a drink or something."

"Better idea: how about we share one at my house after you and Sakura see your daughter again?"

Naruto smiled enthusiastically, traces of his childhood self coming through as he grinned like an idiot and gave a thumbs up. "Its a deal!" He then remembered something, "Say! In speaking of daughters, how's Sunako?"

"She's doing well; she's actually growing up to be quite a formidable sand ninja if I do say so myself."

"How about you bro? I mean...are you still holding up after...y'know...?" He felt too awkward to finish the sentence.

"I'm alright. She is in a better place now just like my own mother, both myself and Sunako know that." Naruto nodded his head in understanding. "Just as I'm certain your own mother and father are at peace as well Naruto."

The auburn-haired former jinchūriki looked around the blonde to see the rest of the company, meaning that he was not able to see the tragic frown that had appeared on the blonde's face. "Yeah, right..."

"Hello Sakura," Gaara greeted his friend's wife as he walked towards her.

"Pleasure to see you again Gaara," she bowed politely to the Kazekage.

"You know that you don't have to be overly formal with me Sakura, especially since this is not on official kage duties here."

"Gomen," she apologized...before breaking down and wrapping her arms around him in a emotional hug of her own. "Thank you...Thank you so much for saving my little girl..."

"The pleasure was all mine m'lady," he said politely. As he broke himself from the hug, he next noticed the raven-haired, one-armed former missing nin before him.

"Hello Uchiha," he said with barely a tinge of coldness.

"Lord Kazekage,' Sasuke answered back, not even bothering to bow.

Gaara didn't linger too long as he bowed to Karin, who did so back in respect. He also greeted the rest of Sasuke's team with a bit more respect, and he was polite to the rest of Naruto's friends from Konoha...and he was a just a tad bit awkward greeting Lee, even after they'd buried the hatchet from that, err, incident during the Chūnin Exams decades ago.

And then he was greeted by a certain missing nin with a red mask and a big mouth...

"OMG! Gaara of the Sand! "Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!" Yes, Randamu, like an overly energetic preteen fangirl, ran up to the Kazekage and started shaking his hand enthusiastically...apparently he was a fan.

"Sir, my name's Randamu and I'm a big fan of yours, not as much as Naruto since he's _way_ more awesome than you, but you're still cool anyway!"

Gaara was assaulted by the man's enthusiasm so suddenly that it totally boggled his mind. "Umm...thank you."

He leaned in to whisper something in the sand ninja's ear. "Between you and me, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened man. That must have been rough."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean that fight you lost to that earthbender; y'know, the little blind girl. I just wanted to let you know that she's one tough mamma-jamma and you've got _nothing_ to be ashamed of dude!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"_Suuuure_ you don't." Randamu wagged his eyebrows beneath his mask as if he and Gaara were in on some private joke, but Gaara was only left still confused and, now, kind of annoyed. "But listen, if it makes you feel any better, I hear a certain loud mouthed elastic pirate managed to take out Naruto in just under a minute."

"Say what?" Naruto called out confused. "Did somebody say my name?"

"Oh no Naruto! It's nothing man!"

Gaara decided to take this opportunity to make his escape from this, err, interesting masked man that was a part of his friend's company. But then, the youngest of the Sand Siblings greeted the spectacled, raven-haired girl next to Karin.

"Hello, I'm not sure if we've met. My name is Gaara, and I am the Fifth Kazekage."

The girl felt a bit nervous being in his presence (even in his most polite moments Gaara could still come across fairly intimidating), but she got her composure and bowed. "Greetings Lord Kazekage, I am Sarada Uchiha."

"Ah yes, of course, Uchiha's daughter." He got on one knee to get himself level with her. "Naruto has told me some things about you, he says you have the makings to become quite a strong shinobi some day."

"A-Arigato my lord," she bowed again.

Nodding in acknowledgement, he then turned to the blonde haired boy next to her. "Do you remember me young man?"

"Hai, you're Gaara. You're friends with my dad."

"That's correct. You were much smaller last time I saw you. Congratulations on becoming a Genin. We're all expecting great things from you."

"Excuse me Lord Kazekage," Shinachiku spoke, "but how's my sister?"

Gaara could see plenty of worry and desperation in the young man's eyes. "Do not worry young man, the girl is perfectly safe, and as soon as we've found a solution to whatever it is that is affecting her chakra network—"

"Actually Gaara," Sakura interrupted, "Naruto and I might have a solution to that problem already."

As the adults got to talking, filling the sand ninja in on the serums they had in their possession, the rest of the company took in their surroundings and engaged in small talk, save for Shikamaru, Shino, Sai and Akamaru, who were all on alert in case anyone else should decide to pay them an unexpected visit...say a resurrected former kage and his former jinchūriki wife for instance.

Shinachiku stared at his parents and godparents as they engaged in conversation with the Kazekage in the distance. He did not notice Sarada coming up to him until she tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"'Cause you look like you're _really_ interested in what the grown ups are talking about."

"Can you blame me?! This is Hanami we're talking about here?!" He then realized that he might have spoken a bit too harshly, "Gomen Sarada."

The girl merely shook it off, "Forget about it." She said nothing for a few seconds as she let the gravity of her friend's situation sink in. "You must really miss her, huh?"

He turned his head to face her, "Of course I do, she's my little sister."

"No, I mean you _really_ miss her. I've seen how close you two are." He raised an eyebrow at what she just said, "You know what I mean!"

He relaxed and took deep breath before he spoke to her again. "Y'know, I was four years old when my parents told me one day that I was going to be big brother. I thought it sounded so cool, I mean, a sibling, another kid I can play with, train with, all that stuff. But when she was finally born, my dad spoke to me and told me something I'll never forget..."

* * *

A little boy no older than five was sitting in a chair in the waiting room of Konoha Hospital. He wasn't alone of course, his grandparents were watching him to make sure he was safe.

He had been looking forward to this day, his mother and father had told him many months ago that he was going to have a new baby brother of sister to play with. He was surprised but still excited when he found out that it was going to be a baby sister.

And yet, now that that moment was here, he had to admit that he was starting to feel kind of nervous. What was this going to mean for him? Were they now going to be too busy with the baby to give any time to him anymore?

'No,' the little boy told himself, 'mom and dad would never do that.'

"You alright sport?"

Shinachiku look up to see his grandfather looking down at him. He had one of his usual goofy grins on, reminding him of his father in some of his silliest moments.

"I'm alright grandpa."

The old man put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You know, your mom is going to be just fine kid. She's a strong woman and if she can put up with both you _and_ your dad, she can put up with anything."

"Kizashi!"

The pink-haired man blushed in shyness, "Sorry dear."

Mebuki, sitting on the other side of the boy, wrapped her arms around her grandson in an effort to comfort him. "Oh don't worry sweetie, your mommy's going to be alright."

He accepted the hug as he continued to wait. He waited...and waited...and waited. It must have been hours and hours. He tried to keep himself entertained by looking through some of the magazines that were in the hospital waiting area, but they were all pretty boring. He's brought his portable gaming device with him, but even that was getting boring after a while.

"Shina?"

The boy looked up at the familiar sound of his father's voice. There he was, standing there with a warm, content smile.

"Dad? Is mommy okay?"

"She's fine son, its all over now." He walked over to his son and kneeled down to his level. "Come on champ, there's someone very special who wants to meet you."

The boy got up out of his chair looking back to his grandparents, smiling at him nodding their heads.

Naruto spoke to his in-laws, "I'm going to let him see her first, then you two can come in next. I hope you don't mind?"

"No, its okay son," Kizashi said. "just don't take too long."

Nodding, Naruto took his son by the hand and walked him down the halls towards Sakura's hospital room. Stopping in front of the door, Naruto looked down to his little boy. "Are you ready?"

Shinachiku nodded his head as his father opened the door.

Inside the room he could see his mother sitting in a hospital bed, looking very tired and her hair just a little bit disheveled, but otherwise she appeared very happy. Standing to the side of the bed were Lady Tsunade and Shizune, Shinachiku knew them well.

But they weren't the ones that his eyes were focusing on. In his mother's arms was a small, tiny bundle of joy wrapped in a pink blanket. She had large blue eyes like his father's and a bald head, save for a couple of thin pink locks like his mother's. The baby was cooing and giggling, resting in her loving mother's soft embrace.

As the boy approached the bed in awe, his mother spoke to him. "Shina, sweetie, this is your sister Hanami."

Not knowing what else to do, he looked down at her and grinned as he waved his hand excitedly. "Hi Hanami! My name's Shinachiku, and I'm your big brother!"

The baby reacted not by crying in fear at the boy's energy, but by giggling as her tiny arms reached out to him. In a truly adorable scene, she grasped her puny digits around the boy's index finger, shaking it.

The father smiled in pride as the mother couldn't resist the tears of joy that escaped from her eyes. They'd just met and already her children loved each other.

"Shinachiku," Naruto spoke, getting the boy's attention, "come here for a second, I need to tell you something."

The boy stepped away from the bed and went to his father, who got back down on one knee so he could be eye level with his son.

"Shina," Naruto began, "you don't know how happy it makes me and your mother to see you and Hanami together. But I want you to understand something: you're her big brother now. That comes with responsibility. I want you to make me a promise that from now on you'll do your part to watch out for her. Protect her in case she gets bullied, try to keep her out of trouble, and try to be there whenever she needs you."

The boy looked over at the baby again and smiled large and wide before turning back to his father. "I promise dad!"

The blonde Hokage brought his son in to a one armed hug, "That's my boy!"

Letting the boy go, he was surprised when he dashed back over to his mother's bed and looked his baby sister right in the eyes. "Hey Hanami guess what? Your oniichan's going to be watching out for you from now on! I promise nobody's going to hurt you imoto! _Believe it!_"

* * *

Sarada stood there and listened to what her friend had told her. She took it all in, recognizing for the first time how deep their bond must really be...In truth, she kind of envied him. She never had any siblings and used to wonder what those kind of relationships were like. She figured that it meant two kids fighting and competing for their parent's attention all the time...but that wasn't the impression she was getting from Shinachiku at all.

"Shina I...I never knew..."

"I promised her I'd never let anything happen to her. I promised! And now look what's happened!"

"None of that was your fault—"

"I don't care! This never would have happened to her if I'd been there!"

"Then you would have just gotten injected with that semen just like she had."

"You don't know that."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "You know what, your right, I don't. But I _do_ know that standing here and blaming yourself for what happened to her, as if you're afraid she's going to blame you for any of it, _isn't_ going to fix anything! So why don't you get your act together, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and lets go to Suna to get Hanami back?!"

The blonde-haired boy stared at the bifocaled girl impressively. Even in her meanest moments he still had to admit, she was right. Blaming himself for his sister's fate wasn't going to make her any better. And frankly, he should just be happy that she was still alive!

Without thinking, he leaped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Sarada in an emotional hug. The girl blushed deep red, naturally, but after hearing him say a quiet "Thank you," she accepted the hug and returned it...

"Ahem!"

Their moment was interrupted when they looked in the direction of the voice. They both blushed in embarrassment when they saw Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Karin and Gaara all looking at them. Their parent's were all giving them knowing, smug looks, including Sasuke, but particularly Sakura and Karin. Gaara just looked at them with a slight smile. They quickly broke apart and straightened out their clothes to do what they could to downplay the moment.

"Mom! Dad!" Shinachiku shouted. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Sure it isn't," Sakura smirked.

"Mom!" Sarada started, "please don't get the wrong idea. Shinachiku was just worried about his sister and—"

"I know," Karin responded, smiling devilishly. "Still, you _did_ seem to enjoy that hug he was giving you."

"MOM!/AUNT KARIN!" Both of them shouted.

They heard more giggling from behind them, turning to see the rest of the adults smiling at them knowingly, even sourpusses like Shino and the ever-bored Shikamaru.

"Aw! Isn't that cute!" Ino mocked.

"They look so adorable together!" Hinata agreed.

"Aunt Ino! Aunt Hinata!" Shinachku protested while Sarada merely continued to blush.

"Alright enough fun," Sasuke said ruining the moment. "We're all nearly up to speed now, so lets get this show on the road."

"But how are we going to get there so quickly?" Lee questioned.

"With this."

The company turned to face Gaara as he pulled something out of his pocket. Opening his hand, a bright green light appeared, much to the amazement of everyone. In the center of the light they could make out a small item in the center of it that resembled a jewel of some sort. No one needed to be told what the item in question was.

"Gaara," Sakura said in shock, "W-Where did you...?'

"This chakra gem has been in my village's possession for decades now. We have kept it safe and hidden for its own protection."

"What does it do?" Sasuke asked seriously.

"This gem allows instantaneous moment to anywhere the user is able to clearly imagine. Just picture where you want to go, and in a flash of green light, you are there in the next instant."

"Oh!" Shinachiku spoke up, "So its kind of like my dad's Flying Thunder God technique then?"

"No, that technique requires markers as a predetermining point to teleport to. This chakra gem is only limited by the user's clarity of vision. One must know the _exact_ spot they wish to go to, so no random jumping to some place you've never been before."

Shikamaru nodded, "_That's_ why you specifically told us to meet you in this place, isn't it? Because you must have passed by here before on a diplomatic mission of some sort after the war."

Gaara nodded his head to give his answer. "Correct. The only down side is that using the gem actually consumes a large amount of one's chakra. Nearly half of your daily supply to go one way, and nearly all the other half to go somewhere else."

Shino understood, "Meaning that you can only use it to come here and then to bring us back with you to Suna, then you can't use it again for 24 hours." Gaara nodded again.

"That's amazing..." Tenten said in awe.

"Indeed," Sai agreed, "if the enemy were to get a hold of such power—"

"What enemy?" Gaara asked confused.

Naruto intervened, "Its a _long_ story Gaara. But seriously, when we get back we _really_ need to talk about this. Its _imperative_ not only to Suna's survival, but to _all_ the shinobi villages too."

Gaara said nothing as he took the seriousness of these implications in. Finally, he merely nodded silently as he signaled the entire company to gather around him.

"Alright, everyone please hold on to me and do not let go."

The crowd of eighteen gathered around the Kazekage as he held up his hand with the chakra gem enclosed within his fist.

"So what happens now?" Ino questioned.

"Just...don't move."

With that, Gaara opened his hand and a bright flash of green emitted from them gem, illuminating the entire valley in its emerald radiance. But almost as quickly as it had appeared it was already gone, as were the nineteen shinobi that were huddled around it. The only thing that remained of their presence were their footprints and the aftermath of a great battle between two old friends a long time ago...

* * *

In the Village Hidden in the Sand, deep within the Land of Wind, a single homely house rested, one that was single story but fairly large and had many rooms, a well kept lawn, and was a worthy enough place for a leader such as Gaara to raise his only daughter.

It was in the backyard of this home that a sudden flash of green light appeared and disappeared just as fast. Landing on the lawn with a loud thud was a large crowd of people: twelve adult shinobi from Konoha, two children, three more adults from other villages, and one missing nin from somewhere even he himself did not know.

Groaning from the hard landing, the group got off of Gaara as the auburn-haired man took in his surroundings.

"Where the heck are we?" Kiba groaned in annoyance.

"We are in Sunagakure," Gaara answered, "this is my home."

Everyone was stunned! Naruto had been here before when he had visited Gaara on diplomatic meetings. There was no denying that the gem had truly done its work, they had traveled many hundreds of miles from one side of the shinobi world all the way to the other in less than a second!

"Okay, I'm impressed," Sasuke admitted.

Everyone's attention then directed towards the front door as it opened to reveal a familiar face. "Hey, is somebody out here?"

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all nearly had their eyes bulge out of their sockets when they saw who it was. "KAKASHI-SENSEI?!"

The former Copy Ninja merely responded by waving his hand and giving them one of his signature eye smiles. "Oh, hey you guys. Unexpected surprise seeing all of you here."

The three of them sweat dropped at how nonchalantly the old man was handling this.

"Kakashi, did I hear somebody out here?" Another old man, this time one with really large black eyebrows and confined to a wheelchair, wheeled himself to the back door to see what was gong on.

"Guy-sensei?" Tenten reacted in surprise.

"GUY-SENSEI!" Lee, true to form, reacted with far too much enthusiasm and glee and practically teleported to his old master's side and embraced him in a manly hug. This time _all_ of the others sweat dropped.

"Guy!" An older woman's voice called out as she came to the door herself. "You should have waited for me! I could have pushed you too the door—Wait, _LEE!_"

"KURENAI-SENSEI?!" Kiba, Shino and Hinata all reacted in surprise of their own.

"Kids? What are all of you doing here?"

"Lord Kazekage brought us here sensei," Hinata explained.

The three teachers walked onto the lawn to reacquaint themselves with their former students. Sadly, Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji were not able to have the same kind of warm reunion with their own master...But at least they still had Asuma's old flame here with them, and all of Team 10 and Team 8 were like a bunch of aunts and uncles on some level to her daughter Mirai, wherever she was right now.

"Hey, what's all the commotion going on out here?"

They turned to the doorway once more, and yet again, Naruto and Sakura were shocked to see two very familiar women standing there.

"LADY TSUNADE! SHIZUNE!"

"BAACHAN! SHIZUNE!"

"Naruto! Sakura!" Both women ran up to their old students and friends and wrapped them in a hug.

"I was worried that I might never see you again."

"Me too m'lady," Sakura said as she hugged her old master.

"Its so good to see you safe again Naruto."

"Arigato Shizune." Naruto broke his hug with her just as soon as Tsunade practically squeezed him into her chest. "Baachan...air..."

Tsunade let go of the young man, "Oh sorry brat, I was just, well..."

"Its okay, I missed you too."

And so the atmosphere was until two more voices came from the doorway:

"Shikamaru?"

"Dad?"

The lazy Nara turned his head up at the sound of his name and his face nearly faulted at what he saw. His wife was standing there as was his only son. The young man, famous for favoring logic and keeping him emotions in check, could not stop the tears from flowing as he ran over to his family and wrapped them both in a tight, desperate hug. He held Shikadai in his arms and whispered his gratitude that he was still alive. He then brought his wife into a hug of her own as he claimed her lips, herself quickly accepting the kiss and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Chōji was smiling as he saw his best friend reunited with his family, but at the same time he could not help but worry about his own...

"Chōji?"

"Daddy?"

The burly Akimichi looked up to see his beautiful wife and daughter both stunned to see him. Smiling like an idiot, he ran up to them and lifted his little girl up into his arms, spinning her around in the air before bringing her into a hug. After sharing his affection for her, he leaned in to embrace his wife, but was caught off guard when she instead grabbed hold of him and brought him into a passionate kiss.

Sai held his wife's hand as Ino watched both of her teammates come together with their families again.

"Mom? Dad?"

The two parents felt their blood run cold as they looked to the same doorway. Standing there now was their pride and joy. Inojin was looking at them both in a puzzling manner, as if he were trying to decide if what he was seeing was real of not.

Ino couldn't help it, she couldn't fight back the tears from flowing. She ran full sped to the doorway and squeezed her son tightly into her chest, planting kisses all over his face. "Sweetheart! I'm so happy you're not hurt!"

Inojin accepted his mother's hug and comforted her. "I'm alright mom. I'm not hurt, none of us are."

Sai came up to his family, got on one knee, and placed a hand on Inojin's shoulder. "It makes me happy to see you son."

"Thank you father."

On the lawn, the others were smiling as so many of their friends were coming together with their children, but Shino was relieved when he saw a familiar young man coming out of the house and walking right up to him.

"Bagu," Shino acknowledged, "I am most pleased to see you here son."

"It is a great relief to see you here as well father."

Shino's two teammates smiled as he brought his son into a one-armed embrace, an uncharacteristic show of affection from him.

"Mom? Dad?"

Kiba and Hinata felt their heart's stop as they saw their children, the twins, Ōkami and Tsuki, run up to them. Hinata broke down in tears as both her children leaped into her arms.

"Oh kids, I missed you both so much!"

"We missed you too mom."

Kiba joined in on the group hug; another family happily reunited.

"Yosh! Father!"

Lee's eyes were instantly flooding with manly tears as he saw his only son, Burandon, come outside. The two of them embraced in a awkwardly manly hug as Tenten could only smile and shake her head at the scene, wiping away her own tears in the process.

And with that, all of the Konoha families were together as whole again...save for one.

Naruto and Sakura looked to the doorway and what they both saw caused time to stand still around them. There she was, their pride and joy, their princess, their heart and soul. She was here, and she was safe.

"M-Mommy? D-Daddy?"

All of the other families, as happy as they all were to be with each other again, kindly took a time out to bear witness to this emotional moment.

Sakura clasped her hands over her mouth as her eyes flooded uncontrollably. Her face was an utter mess as she was barely able to get out her daughter's name. "Hanami..."

The little girl with pink hair felt tears of joy well up herself as she ran out to the woman with her arms out. "Mommy!"

Mother and daughter collided together and wrapped themselves in a seemingly unbreakable embrace. Hanami cried into her mother's shoulder as Sakura herself cried tears of joy for finally being reunited with her little girl.

"I missed you so much mommy."

"I missed you too sweetheart. I missed you so much! I love you!"

The Uzumaki women did not know how many long seconds it was before a certain blonde haired man finally dared to break up the moment. "Hanami, sweetie, I'm here too."

The girl lifted her head from her mother's shoulder and got a massive, utterly adorable smile when she saw who it was. "Daddy!"

She literally leaped out of her mother's arms and straight into her father's lap. As she practically tackled him in her happiness, Naruto was quick to embrace his daughter in one of the most loving hugs he had ever given to anyone.

"God! I missed you so much Hanami."

"I missed you too daddy. I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart."

Sakura and all of their friends smiled at the beautiful sight, Sakura herself trying to wipe away her tears of joy.

Father and daughter remained like that for several seconds that felt like far longer...and then she looked to the side and she saw him. Standing there, with his eyes watering, his face having one of the happiest smiles she had ever seen from him, was her hero.

"Oniichan?"

The boy struggled to find the right words to say as he took in the full weight of all that was happening. Here she was, his little sister was right here. After all the chaos and all the strife and all that horrible things he wasn't able to protect her from, here she was before him now. Never before had he been this happy to see her, it was almost too much.

"H-Hey sis..."

That was all Hanami needed. Like a rocket she leaped out of her father's lap and ran all the way over to her big brother, the force of her impact was actually enough to knock him down onto the grass. Hanami wrapped her arms tightly, possessively around her big brother as she cried into his shoulder. He didn't hesitate to embrace her back, a couple tears of his own letting out, happy beyond words that she was safe.

"I missed so much oniichan."

"I missed you too imoto. I'm so happy your okay."

They stayed that way, the Uzumaki siblings taking comfort in each other's embrace as everyone else watched.

"I love you big brother."

"I love you too little sis. And I swear that I'm never going to let something like this happen to you again. That's a promise."

The parents held each other's hands as they smiled warmly at the deep bond their children shared and that, at long last, their entire family was whole again. Thy both walked over to the kids and wrapped them both into a group hug with all of their friends watching.

There was much work to be done, much planning and strategizing that would need to come for their enemy to be defeated and for peace, for their very lives, to return to normal once again. But for the moment, all that the Uzumaki family had was the company of one another, and for now, that was good enough.

* * *

Awww! Wasn't that sweet? No, seriously, I'd really like to know. The main goal of this chapter was to highlight the bond between Shinachiku and Hanami. Having just come off of "Naruto's Big Day," I was hoping that going straight from the ending of that into this chapter here was a nice, fitting continuation of sorts.

I suspect that some of my readers who have siblings of their own might find their relationship a bit unrealistic because they are not constantly bickering and getting on each other nerves. To that, I'll just say that I am an only child who, therefore, has not ever had the opportunity to forge such a relationship myself. As such, I wasn't particularly interested in seeing the usual sibling rivalry but instead a loving relationship, one where the brother is devoted to keeping the sister safe and the sister looks up to her big brother like a role model.

To give you an example, has anybody out there ever seen the manga and anime series "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi"? If you have, think about the relationship between Kenichi and his little sister Honoka, that's kind of what's gong on here. In fact, in my one-shot story "An Uzumaki Family Christmas," I dropped a hint that Hanami gets jealous of girls who hog her big brother's attention, similar to how Honoka always gets jealous of Kenichi's interest in Miu, minus all the boob jokes.

Leave it to Randamu to drop in blatant Fourth Wall references. In the scene where he introduces himself to Gaara, he tries to console the Kazekage over his loss to a young, blind earthbender. This is a reference to the episode of Screwattack's popular web series "Death Battle" called "Gaara vs. Toph"...yes, Toph Beifong from "Avatar: The Last Airbender." I know some "Naruto" fans may be mad at me for saying this, but since "Avatar" just so happens to be one of my favorite series of all time, I wasn't exactly upset that Gaara lost (spoiler), especially since, as usual, they analyzed every detail they could and explained their verdict very well.

Randamu also referenced Naruto loosing a fight against "a certain loud mouthed elastic pirate." This is a reference to the very recently posted episode of another Screwattack series, "One-Minute Melee," where Naruto fought against Monkey D. Luffy from "One Piece." I have more issues with this one since, as per the format, the wrapped the fight up in one minute and did no research. I personally think that this is a fight that _needs_ to be made into a Death Battle!

As you probably noticed, the ending of this chapter was really tough to write. Why? Because I had A LOT of characters to reunite and pay off on an emotional level! And yet, in the wake of all these parents coming back together with their children, I tried to make the bonds among the Uzumaki family stand out among them. Frankly, I'm not wholly sure whether I pulled it off or not.

Well, anyway, I hope this chapter was emotional, touching, and that it was worth the wait for so long. There was even a couple flashback scenes between the two siblings that I had in mind but I didn't include because they didn't quite fit. Maybe I'll get them in for the next one.

Well, thank you all again for reading, and thank you all again for you patience and your support.

Until next time, see ya!


	32. Chapter 30--Brother and Sister

What's up guys, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the next chapter of "Shianchiku's First Adventure!"

This one, admittedly, took a few more days to get done than I originally anticipated, for two reasons. Firstly because I ended up having a rather busy and eventful week so I needed some free time to get this chapter done.

The second, and far more important reason, is because this chapter was not necessarily in the original plan. After I posted the previous chapter I had a rather involved conversation with my friend samuraipanda85. He and I had a debate over how I was playing Shinachiku and Hanami's relationship too nice and loving, and that real sibling relationships would never be like that. For the record, I knew that going in, but having never had any siblings of my own and after seeing so many confrontational brother-sister relationships portrayed before, I decided that I wasn't interested in playing them that way. Besides, very close and polite sibling relationships do exist in real life and in fictional media; look at Dipper and Mabel Pine from "Gravity Falls" for example...And yes I'm aware of the whole 'Pinecest' thing so don't even go there!

Anyway, that was my original plan, but after thinking it over in the wake of that discussion, I decided that their relationship probably did need more depth to explain better why they are so close. But in addition, one of my most frequent criticisms of this story is that my title character is "too perfect." I wasn't writing Shinachiku to be flawless so much as to make him as likable as possible and a total 180 degree opposite to how bratty Bolt has been portrayed in canon.

But, again, I decided that this was something that needed to be fixed, so I decided to do some sort-of retconning of myself to go back and fill out the sibling's past. I'm hoping that this chapter fleshes them out more and makes their bond more clear and more complex than it may have been before.

So, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 30: Brother and Sister**

"Hey!" Sasuke spoke up, "I hate to be the one to break up the moment, but maybe we should get down to talking to make sure everyone is up to speed on things."

Naruto and Sakura broke up their family hug at the sound of their old teammate's voice. Looking down at their children, and then at each other, they both regretted what they knew needed to be done, but with Taka still out in the world and still very much of a threat, something needed to be done to stop them, and it needed to be done soon.

"Kids," Naruto said to the children, "the grown ups are going to need to sit down and work out a strategy to deal with the people responsible for all of this."

"I know dad," Shinachiku nodded, "but first, shouldn't we do something about...?" The boy nudged his head in his sister's direction, snapping both of them back to the main reason they were so desperate to get here in the first place.

Sakura put her hand on Hanami's shoulder to make sure she looked her straight in the eye. "Sweetie, your father and I know about what happened to you and we think that we have something that will make you feel better."

The pink-haired girl was all smiles. "Really?! That's great mommy!"

"Naruto? Sakura?" Garra called out, getting the blonde's attention, "could we speak with you for a moment first?"

The parents sighed, then gave a 'Wait here' gesture to their kids before they joined Gaara, Sasuke, Sai and Shikamaru for a group discussion. As they adults were talking, far enough away that the children could not hear what was being said, Hanami looked up to her big brother in curious concern over what was happening.

"Shina? What are they talking about?"

"I don't know sis, but whatever it is I'm sure it's about you?"

The girl took her brother's hand in her own, "I'm scarred."

"Don't be."

The voice did not come from Shinachiku, but from one of their parent's oldest friends, and one that all of the children present were very close to. "Shino-sensei!"

The bug master crouched down to the girl's eye level and looked at her through his visor. "Hanami, your mother and father would never do anything to hurt you. They are merely talking amongst themselves to make sure that what they are doing for you really is the best option. The last thing they want is for anything bad to happen to you again."

She nodded, "Arigato Shino-sensei."

The Aburame frowned. "Hanami...I'm sorry."

"For what sensei?"

"For not being more attentive. For making such a _stupid_ mistake! If I had been more alert and paid closer attention, then those Taka spies would never have gotten hold of you and you would never have had your chakra blocked off in the first place." He hung his head in shame, "This is all my fault."

The little girl touched his arm, causing him to look up at her as she merely smiled sweetly at him. "It's not your fault Shino-sensei, you didn't know. I'm just happy I got away and now I'm back together with mommy and daddy and oniichan again!"

Shinachiku could only stand there staring at his sister forgiving their teacher so easily...It was almost too painful to watch. The longer he looked at it, it was like a dagger digging deep into his heart and twisting. He loved his sister, and he loved how sweet and innocent she could truly be...but that sweetness also brought up a lot of memories, both some of his most cherished ones, and some really uncomfortable memories that he would soon like to forget...

* * *

It was six years ago, back in Konoha, inside the Uzumaki family home. It was early in the morning so neither Naruto or Sakura had left for work yet. At the moment, the family was gathered in the living room, with the proud parents gathered around the baby girl as she sat on the carpeted floor sucking on her pacifier.

"Hanami-chan?" Sakura called out cutely. "Hanami sweetie? Can you say 'baba'?" She waved the girl's baby bottle, filled with warm milk, to make it clear what she meant. The loving mother then got closer to her infant daughter, "Can you say 'mama'?"

The little girl's father looked down at her with a big, goofy smile. "Can you say 'daddy' sweetie? _Daddy?_"

A little boy, only six years old at the time, was sitting near the girl at his mother's side. "Hanami, can you say 'Get bent'?"

"SHINACHIKU!"

"Just kidding mom!"

The boy's mother was clearly _not_ amused. "Young man, I don't want you saying such offensive things at your age. And I _especially_ don't want you teaching such things to your sister!"

"But mom, dad says he used to say stuff like that when he was my age."

Sakura turned to her husband with a death glare that never failed to terrify him anytime he was forced to look at it. The Seventh Hokage actually tugged at his collar nervously as traces of sweat appeared on his brow.

"S-Sweetie," Naruto tried desperately to defend himself, "it's not what you think!"

"Oh really?" she scowled. "Then please explain it."

"I-I-I was just telling Shinachiku stories about what _I_ was like as a kid. Y'know, not knowing my parents, living alone, ostracized, wanting attention, pulling pranks. I had an attitude problem back then remember?"

"Oh _believe_ me, I remember!"

The little boy giggled, earning him a 'Thanks for the lack of support' expression from his father. "Y'know," he said to his wife, "the sooner kids learn to talk, the sooner they learn to talk back."

Shinachiku waved his hands in the air, panicking as if he were in trouble. "Mom! Dad! I'm sorry! I was just making a joke. I never really meant—"

"Shinachiku."

The entire room fell silent. It was neither the mother, nor the father, nor even the boy himself that just spoke his name. Time came to a stand still as they all turned to the only other occupant in the entire house.

Little Hanami was sitting there, right where she was, her pacifier out of her mouth and resting, coated in her saliva, on the carpet where it sat momentarily forgotten. She was giggling and clapping her hands like the adorable, innocent little baby she was, almost as though she was taking delight in the utterly stunned reactions of her family.

Naruto looked like his eyes were about to burst out of their sockets in shock. Never in a million years did he expect his baby girl to actually start talking this early, let alone could he have ever guessed her first words would be her own brother's lengthy, four-syllable name, of all things. Sakura, on the other hand, looked like she was going to cry tears of happiness. Her hands were clasped over her mouth as she fought back the urge to squeal out in happiness at what she'd just heard. It was the single most adorable thing she'd ever heard...

...And then there was Shinachiku himself. The poor boy could only stand there in amazement.

'Did she...? Am I...? Did she _really_ just...?!'

"Hanami," he said aloud, "what did you say?"

The baby pointed at her brother with her tiny finger and spoke again. "Shinachiku!"

As the parents were still stuck in their state of shock, the boy in question was as well...until he became all smiles and started jumping around in excitement.

"Yes!" He picked up the baby, which she seemed to enjoy based on her laughing, and took her over to the parents, snapping them out of their surprise. "Mom! Dad! She can talk! She can talk! _I'm_ Hanami's first word!"

Sakura dried her tears and smiled as Naruto put his hand on her shoulder. "Your sister likes you son," Naruto said. "Now that I think about it, I'm not that surprised that you were her first word."

The boy's eyes glossed over, "Wow..." He looked over at his baby sister, still in his young arms, and as if by some basic human, familial instinct, the young siblings came together in an affectionate hug...

* * *

"Hey oniichan," four year old Hanami said with glee, "want to play dolly with me?"

The young blonde boy, now nine years old, let out a groan. He had played with her all afternoon yesterday, having to play house with her stupid dolls and he was getting tired of it...In fact, he was getting tired of her altogether! Every chance she got she would come into his room and bother him. Once or twice was okay, but it was becoming too much.

"Not now Hanami, please?"

"Aww! Come on big brother! _Pleeeeasssse!_"

"No Hanami! I'm tired now! Go away and leave me alone!"

"But big brother—"

"I said **NO!**"

The little girl looked stunned, almost like she was ready to cry. Her big brother, her idol, had just yelled at her. And yet, even after all of that, she still didn't want to give up. She walked up to her brother and started shaking and grabbing his arm.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing Hanami?!"

"Come on big brother! I wanna play!"

"Hanami **NO!** Get out of my room and mind your own business for once!"

The struggle was brief, but fierce, the Uzumaki siblings at odds with each other in this typical sibling squabble as Hanami tried to get her brother to play with her and Shinachiku struggled to get her to let go.

And then it happened. He didn't know how and he certainly didn't know why, in fact, he wasn't even sure if he did it on purpose or not! But whatever the case, it happened...

"Hanami **STOP IT!**"

In his efforts to break free of his baby sister's struggle, his hand had, somehow, backhanded her, hard!

The sound of the loud slap could be heard echoing through the room. All sounds went silent after it had past. Hanami was down on Shinachiku's floor, while Shinachiku was looming over her in anger and frustration. It only lasted a second or two, but Hanami swore she could see something strange going on in her brother's eyes, as if the pupils had turned to slits. She could even sense a spike in his chakra, it reminded her of her father's chakra if he ever got really, really mad.

But this wasn't her father right now, it was her brother...and it scarred her.

Shinachiku felt his anger die down and his eyes and chakra go back to normal. Regaining his boundaries, he looked down and saw what he'd done. His sister was on the floor with a huge red mark on her cheek, telltale evidence that he'd hit her! Yes! He'd just **hit** his four year old sister!

The boy was horrified. How could he have done such a thing? How could he have gotten so mad that he hurt his baby sister?!

"Hanami..." he said lost, "...I...I'm..." The poor boy felt so guilty that he could not even find the ability to speak. "I-I'm sorry. God! I'm so sorry!"

Hanami started crying. She rubbed her cheek and cried as she ran out of his room. Shinachiku didn't hesitate, he chased after her, trying to apologize the whole time.

"Hanami please! I'm sorry! Please, just let me explain—"

"Get away from me! I'm telling mommy!"

He had chased her out of his room and she had run to the edge of the stairs. He tried calling out to her again. "Hanami, please don't tell mom and dad! I'm sorry, I _really_ am!"

The poor girl was scarred. She had never been scarred of her big brother before but right now she just wanted to back away from him...And so she did, closer and closer to the edge of the stairs.

"Hanami DON'T! You'll fall if you get any closer!" He took a deep breath and reached his hand out to her. "Hanami...please?"

This action seemed to help. She'd relaxed just enough to start taking a step towards him...But then she slipped!

**"NOOOOOO!"**

The little pink haired girl fell backwards down the stairs, not catastrophically, but enough to see that the fall hurt pretty bad, especially for someone her age. Loud thuds could be heard throughout the house as she fell down the steps, stopping about half way, thank goodness!

She was alive, that was for sure, but she was still really hurt.

And yet, as bad as Hanami's external pain was, her poor older brother felt far worse on the inside...

**"HANAMI!"**

* * *

Mere seconds later, both of their parents practically ran upstairs to see what had happened and were horrified to see the state their daughter was in. Sakura instantly set to work healing Hanami's injuries, a couple minor fractures and scraps that she could heal, but there might still be a scar that resulted from the fall.

Naruto, furious, demanded an explanation from Shinachiku about what happened. He gave them one and the parents were, predictably, horrified and outraged, so much so that Sakura had to stop healing Hanami to go walk up the stairs and approach him...

...That was the first any only time she had ever slapped her son.

"What were you thinking?!" she screamed. "How dare you strike your sister like that?! Do you realize what you've done?!"

Shinachiku was crying himself as he rubbed the sore spot on his own now-reddened cheek. He tried to apologize, but Sakura wasn't going to hear any of it, she needed to get back to treating Hanami anyway.

This left Naruto to glare in anger at the boy, in a look that terrified him. The blonde jinchūriki glared at his son with contempt, contempt that would eventually pass of course, but for the moment contempt nonetheless.

He said only eight words to his son. Eight simple words that spoke volumes to any nine year old boy that heard them. "Go to your room; we'll discuss this later."

Oh yes, it was the understatement of the century, but Shinachiku was in BIG trouble! He'd be lucky if he'd get by just with being grounded for a week, more likely a month! But honestly, he was expecting far worse than just that!

However, nothing that the boy was imagining could have compared to what happened next. You see, as he was heading back to his room, he heard a voice calling out his name. He stopped, he knew that voice anywhere and dreaded that it was still coming from the stairs. Looking down with fear, he gazed at Hanami as their mother was finishing healing her.

"Oniichan," Hanami said, "I'm sorry for not listening to you when you said you didn't want to play. If I'd listened to you then you wouldn't have gotten mad and this wouldn't have happened. I'm sorry oniichan."

That did it. That was what broke him. All of the anger, all of the pain, all of this was **his** fault! And yet **she** was apologizing to **him**?!

Yes, Hanami, sweet little Hanami who loved her big brother and her whole family so much, who was simply incapable of hating anybody. She was forgiving him already, when it was so clear that **he** was the one who should be on his knees **begging** for her forgiveness!

When she was born he'd made a promise to keep her safe, to protect her and not let anything happen to her...And now look what the fuck he'd done!

And so, overcome with grief and shame and sorrow...Shinachiku Uzumaki cried...

* * *

It was about a month or two later, Hanami had healed fine thanks to Sakura, save for one very tiny, nearly invisible scar on her underarm, one that most people who saw her would never even be able to notice unless it was pointed out to them...But her brother sure noticed it.

Shinachiku had taken quite a severe punishment for what happened that day, and he deserved all of it. Something came over him that day and he made a vow to himself to never let anything like that happen to her again! How Hanami was able to forgive him for what happened, let alone forgive him so easily, he doubted he would ever understand. But what mattered was that Hanami, sweet, innocent Hanami, had forgiven him and he was going to make it up to her, somehow...

And then came one day at the Academy. Class was temporarily out of session and the children were at recess. Shinachiku was chatting it up with some of his friends, Inojin, Shikadai and Ōkami.

"So I was like 'But mom?! _Pleeeeeaaaassseeee?_'"

"Oh jeez! Ōkami, you didn't _really_ whine to your mom like that, did you?"

"Oh cut me some slack Shikadai! It worked. Tsuki got the blame for it and I escaped being grounded."

"That's rather screwed up," Inojin stated bluntly.

"Hey! You guys don't have siblings, yet alone a _twin!_ You have no idea what its like!"

Shikadai raised an eyebrow, "You're right, we don't have siblings. But contrary to popular stereotype, I _do_ like to presume that there is more to those kinds of relationships than just fighting all the time." He turned to one of his other friends, "Take Shinachiku for example, I can't remember the last time I've ever seen him and Hanami fight."

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying! It's not normal for siblings to get along that well!"

The blonde-haired boy merely put his head down. 'Yeah, well, there's a damn good reason for that...'

"Hey Shina," Shikadai said, "are you okay man?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine."

"What were you thinking about?" Inojin asked.

"N-Nothing, don't worry about it."

Ōkami got a sly smirk on his face, "I think I know what he's thinking...He's probably thinking about Sarada again."

"_W-What?!_"

"You heard me. You're daydreaming about the next time she and her parents are going to be back in the village again, right?"

"Shut up!"

Ōkami started playing a few more silly games, mocking the poor boy at his expense. Shinachiku wasn't getting physical or anything, but was getting annoyed.

"Whatever!" He decided to walk away and be by himself for a minute before class went back in session. Still, Ōkami's mentioning Sarada did bring a smile to the boy's lips...

He was walking around the other side of the Academy building...and then he saw it. In a place where, apparently, none of the other kids had noticed, was Hanami, and she was surrounded by two much older, much larger boys, about his own age.

"Aww!" one of the boys mocked, "did the little baby loose her dolly?"

"That's mine! Give it back!"

"Make us pinky!" the other boy said.

Hanami tried reaching for her toy doll, but one of the boys literally pushed her back with too much force, making her land on the hard ground with a thud.

"Hey! That hurt!"

The other boys looked down upon her and scowled. "Oh really? What are you gonna do about it pinky! You gonna whine and cry to your daddy? Serves you right you pink-haired demon spawn!"

The boys were laughing at her, laughing ruthlessly. They were the typical grade school bullies, immature and insecure in their own hearts and minds so they chose to state their superiority by taking it out on a seemingly helpless little girl. Even more incredulous, they both seemed to be fully aware that this was the Hokage's daughter; in fact, that might have been the reason they singled Hanami out in the first place.

One of the boys was ready to take it a step further, he raised his foot behind him, preparing to land a strong kick right into the girl's stomach...

**"HEY!"**

The boy's turned to see none other than Shinachiku Uzumaki, the girl's older brother, Naruto's son, standing right behind them. And he looked really, _really_ angry!

"Get lost rich boy!"

"Yeah! Beat it blondie!"

Shinachiku gritted his teeth as he spoke through them. "Get away from her!"

One of the boys laughed. "Oh yeah! What are you gonna do about it?"

**"THIS!"**

In the flash of an eye, Shinachiku laid a colossal punch to the boy's jaw! The boy was knocked to the ground instantly. But Shinachiku wasn't done, not even close. He got on top of the boy and started laying punch after punch into his face, growling in anger the whole time.

The other boy found his courage and tried tackling Shinachiku from behind, but the blonde-haired boy merely pile drove him into the ground and started assaulting him too. The other boy got up, with a broken nose, and tried to take him out at the same time, but Shinachiku was a quite adept fighter for his age, thanks in no small part to some studying from his parents and some of their friends.

To that end, he ducked to the ground as the two bullies tried lunging at him and he kicked both of them in the knees, forcing both of them to the fall to the ground in pain. He then knocked both of them out with one massive punch each...and when they were both down he kicked both of them in the gut, twice as hard as they had done to Hanami.

"How does it feel jerks!" he yelled. "If I ever catch you bullying my little sister again, I'll rip your heart's out! Do you hear me?!"

They didn't answer him, of course, but he figured that the beating that he'd given them was enough for him to make his point. Taking a deep breath to alleviate himself of whatever had come over him, he walked over to one of the boys and took back his sister's doll.

"Hanami," he said as he kneeled down to inspect her, "are you alright?"

Her response was to wrap her big brother in a hug. She was crying because she was picked on, and he'd just saved her. Shinachiku wrapped his arms around her protectively, letting her cry her sorrow into his shoulder.

"Oniichan, she said softly, "I was scarred."

"I know, I'm so sorry they did that to you. But never again. _Never_ again! Your big brother is going to protect you from now on, whatever it takes."

"I love you oniichan."

He was actually surprised by her words, but at the same time they made him feel good. Smiling, he replied "I love you too imouto."

Breaking up the hug, he handed Hanami her doll back, much to her joy. But it was after that that he noticed the crowd of students, including all of his friends, boy and girl, that had gathered around to watch him beat the snot out of the bullies that harassed his sister. The message was clear: Mess with Hanami, you mess with Shinachiku!

Unfortunately, the kids were not the only ones who witnessed what had happened. So had Shino Aburame, Shinachiku's teacher.

The boy felt the blood drain from his face as his intense anger turned to relief and now to grave fear. "Oh crap..."

* * *

Well, suffice to say, Shinachiku's parents weren't too happy when they found out what had happened at school that day. On the one hand, they were both proud of their son for coming to his sister's aid and protecting her, clearly having learned a lesson from that incident that happened a few months ago. One the other hand, he still brutally assaulted a couple of fellow students, bullies or not. So...yeah, he got grounded for a few days.

Of course, one thing that neither Shinachiku, nor anyone else was aware of was that when the two bullies came to, they shared a silent acknowledgement to one another when no one was watching. The message..."Hail Taka."

A year later, some of the Academy students were on a field trip to a local farm located just outside of the village. It was a fairly straightforward field trip, the kids were shown some of the crops, the equipment that was used and, most interesting to the them, they got to see some of the livestock.

The animals they got to see included cows, horses, chickens, sheep, and of course pigs. Hanami was really excited to see some of the pigs (she thought they were cute).

"Hanami!" Shino called out, "be careful on that fence or you'll fall into the pen!"

"But Shino-sensei! They're so cu—WHOA!"

Sure enough, the girl had leaned just a little bit too far and fell forward into the pig pen. In so doing, she got herself covered in mud. The pigs weren't trying to hurt her or anything, but that wasn't what she was thinking about at the moment.

Seeing one of their fellow students fall into a pile of mud, it was no wonder that most of the kids were laughing at the poor girl. She looked so embarrassed, so insulted. She actually look like she was on the verge of crying...

Shinachiku saw this and didn't even think twice about what he should do. Making his way to the front of the crowd, he got on the fence to the pig pen himself and climbed over it.

"Geronimo!"

He dived into the mud himself, getting himself equally covered with the dirty, disgusting matter. But instead of looking grossed out or embarrassed, he merely tuned out the kids that were now laughing at him and smiled big and wide at his sister. The mud that was all over his face as he smiled made him look really funny.

"Hahahahaha!" She laughed at her big brother after what he'd done, already feeling better.

Just to amuse her, Shinachiku laid down in the mud and started making angle shapes in the mud. This got her laughing even more as she joined in. This led to childish races through the mud, chucking clumps of mud at each other and anything Shinachiku could think of to get her thinking about anything but the other kids.

Sure, some of the kids still laughed at them (at their age, how could they not?), but at least one person wasn't laughing. Shino was smiling, yes _smiling_, as he looked at the two Uzumaki siblings. "Alright kids," he called out, "time to get out of the pen so we can get you cleaned up."

The owner of the farm helped the kids out of the pen and went to go find them some towels and a change of clothes. As they waited, Shino spoke in private to the young blonde. "Shinachiku?"

"Hai sensei?"

"I wanted you to know that was a very good thing that you did."

He innocently scratched the back of his still mud-covered head. "Ah, well, I just wanted to make Hanami feel better is all."

"That's what I mean. You went out of your way to cheer up your sister even at the risk of embarrassing yourself. That tells me how much you really care about her. I've known both of your parents for a long time and I know that they are going to be very proud of you."

The boy tensed up. "You're going to tell my parents?"

"Well, yes, as your teacher and your chaperone I have an obligation to do so. But as I said, they're going to be very proud of you for what you did."

The boy looked to his sister who, despite how much of a mess she was, was nevertheless smiling happily at the fun the two of them had together. 'It was worth it.'

* * *

At the end of the day, after they kids had gotten themselves cleaned up and their parents picked them up, the family was back home again and while Hanami went to her room to go play with her toys, Naruto took his son to the side to speak with him in private.

"Shinachiku," he said, "Your teacher told me about what you did for your sister today. I want to let you know that your mother and I are both very proud of you young man!"

The boy actually blushed, "Thanks dad."

After getting the blessing from his parent's, Shinachiku went upstairs to his room and read his father's book. It was one of his favorite past times and he never got sick of reading it.

"S-Shinachiku?"

He turned at the sound of the voice and saw Hanami there. "Oh hey sis. What's up?"

"I...I just want to say thank you for playing in the pig pen with me today."

He smiled, "Anytime sis."

"Oniichan, why do you do so much for me?"

The boy was actually caught off guard by that question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean why do you do so much to protect me?"

"Because I'm your big brother and that's what we do." He got off the bed came over to her. "Besides, I did something to you a long time ago that I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for, and I made a promise to do everything I can to keep you safe."

The little girl looked at the boy with wide eyes, with some tears of joy gathering up within them. "Arigato oniichan."

He smiled again, "You're welcome."

Shinachiku didn't know what came over him, but he remembered a song he'd heard on the radio one time that was about something very similar to what he was promising Hanami right now. So, for no other reason than to make her happy, and since nobody else was around, he started singing:

_Oh, why you look so sad?__  
__Tears are in your eyes__  
__Come on and come to me now__  
__Don't be ashamed to cry__  
__Let me see you through__  
__'cause I've seen the dark side too__  
__When the night falls on you__  
__You don't know what to do__  
__Nothing you confess__  
__Could make me love you less_

_I'll stand by you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Won't let nobody hurt you__  
__I'll stand by you_

_So if you're mad, get mad__  
__Don't hold it all inside__  
__Come on and talk to me now__  
__Hey, what you got to hide?__  
__I get angry too__  
__Well I'm a lot like you__  
__When you're standing at the crossroads__  
__And don't know which path to choose__  
__Let me come along__  
__'cause even if you're wrong_

_I'll stand by you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Won't let nobody hurt you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Take me in, into your darkest hour__  
__And I'll never desert you__  
__I'll stand by you_

_And when...__  
__When the night falls on you, baby__  
__You're feeling all alone__  
__You won't be on your own_

_I'll stand by you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Won't let nobody hurt you_

_I'll stand by you__  
__Take me in, into your darkest hour__  
__And I'll never desert you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Won't let nobody hurt you__  
__I'll stand by you__  
__Won't let nobody hurt you__  
__I'll stand by you_

The girl was looking at him in amazement at what she'd just heard. He could tell she appreciated the song, but he wasn't prepared for the massive hug that she gave him.

"Thank you Shina-chan!" she exclaimed, "that sounded so pretty!"

He chuckled, slightly embarrassed, "You're welcome sis."

He then saw Hanami look at something in the doorway, "Oh hi mommy! Hi daddy!"

Turning his own head, Shinachiku felt blood drain from his face in embarrassment as both of his parent's were standing there, Naruto's mouth hanging open in utter shock while Sakura had her hand to her mouth and was crying tears of joy.

And in that moment, the Uzumaki family, including the boy himself, discovered Shinachiku's amazing singing talent.

* * *

"Hey Shina?"

The blonde was snapped out of his lengthy daydreaming at the sound of a certain raven-haired girl's voice. "Huh? Oh hey Sarada. What's up?"

"I was just saying that I think the grown ups are going to finish talking soon."

"Oh, okay."

She looked at him suspiciously, "What were you thinking about so hard?"

"I was just..." he paused before finishing his sentence, seeing that Shino had separated from Hanami a long time ago. "I was just thinking about a promise I made to keep my sister safe is all."

Sarada thought about what the boy had just said for a moment. "You know, I never had any siblings of my own, but I always figured that it was about nothing but brothers and sisters fighting with each other all the time. But that's not what I see between you two. Your relationship seems perfect."

The boy frowned, he guilt complex rearing its head once again. "Yeah...perfect..."

Several feet away, the five adults were entering their final arguments about what should happen next.

"Naruto," Gaara said, "are you really sure that this is wise?"

"He does have a point," Shikamaru interjected. "This is _Kabuto_ we're talking about. How do we know that this anti-serum he gave you will work? For all we know it could make her even _worse!_"

Naruto was quiet for about three seconds before speaking. "Why else would he have offered to help us if he didn't really mean to help?"

"Maybe for the sick pleasure of tricking you into poisoning your own daughter?"

"DON'T TALK LIKE THAT!"

Shikamaru had to back off in alarm at the volume of Sakura's voice. Even Naruto did a little bit. The frustrated, and admittedly very nervous mother, took a deep breath and apologized.

Sasuke figured they weren't getting anywhere with this back and forth debate and so he laid their options bare. "Look, there are only two ways to know for sure whether the serum is truly legit. We either get to a lab somewhere and examine it ourselves, or we use a live test subject, and Hanami is the only one here who has Taka's serum in her blood. And studying it may not be an option as you-know-who may have agents inside the hospital waiting for us."

"Who?" Gaara questioned.

"It's a long story Gaara," Naruto assured him, "we'll tell you all about it when this is over."

"Wait?" Sakura spoke up, "what if I were to use a transformation jutsu to disguise myself as one of the local doctors to sneak into the research lab?"

"That's a risk," Shikamaru advised. "Who's to say that one of Taka's agent's won't be able to see past your jutsu?"

"TAKA?!" Gaara turned to the Uchiha incredulously.

"Its not what you're thinking," Sasuke countered.

"Alright enough!" Naruto shouted, getting everyone's attention. After that, the Seventh Hokage rubbed his head as he let out a sigh. "Look, we're arguing in circles here and my daughter's future, maybe her _life_ is on the line...Alright, I've made up my mind on what to do."

* * *

Outside the Kazekage's home, a lone figure clothed in a hood was staring at the house intensely. It was almost as if he could see something on the other side, as though he were somehow able to look straight through the house to find something he was looking for.

Deciding that he had found what he was ordered to find, the mysterious figure got out a cellular phone and dialed a number stored within it.

"Yes?" a voice on the other end answered.

"My Lord?" the mysterious observer said, "it would seem our intel was correct. Uzumaki and his allies are all gathered at the Kazekage's house. Their children are here as well."

"Excellent. I knew that planting you as a spy within the village most closely allied with the Leaf was a wise decision."

The mystery man paused for just a moment, "_She_ is here as well my Lord. So are her husband and their children."

"I suspected as much...This isn't going to be a problem for you is it son?"

"...Not at all Lord Uragi. She and I stopped being family a long time ago."

"Good. I'm sending a platoon of our agents within Sunagakure to rendezvous with you as we speak."

"With all do respect sir, I feel confident that I can handle this myself."

"Don't be foolish boy! You of all people are smart enough to know that how utterly outnumbered you are. I have no doubt that your skills can neutralize a number of them, but you will need help on this one; you will need the serum to do indefinitely what your talents can only do for a limited time. Remember, they have only had time to get stronger since you last saw them."

"I suppose you are right. Very well my Lord, standing by."

"Good. Remember, the mission is immobilize, capture and imprison; the Kazekage's presence will still be needed for the Summit."

"Understood. What about the children?"

"They are of no use to us, and Uzumaki's son has surely recovered the Chakra Gem by now.. Kill them if necessary."

"Copy that. Over and out."

The mysterious stranger hung up his phone and put it back into his pocket. He then stared at the Kazekage's house for a few more seconds before he removed his hood, revealing the face of a very young man with fair skin and long, black hair that framed his face, and a very cold expression. He was alone so no one could see the very distinct color of the young man's eyes.

The stranger said two words only: "Hail Taka."

* * *

Well, what do you think? Did I make it better? Did I make it needlessly complicated? Did Shinachiku instantly become any more or less likable (I fear maybe less likable after the flashback where he...well, you know)? Please leave a comment to let me know.

One of my goals with this chapter, in addition to fleshing out Shinachiku and Hanami's relationship, was to highlight that as 'perfect' as Shinachiku seems to be, he does have at least three serious character flaws (plus a fourth one that I didn't get into here): He has a mild inferiority complex after living in his father's shadow (which I didn't get into in this chapter but I think I set up subtly in the early chapters), he is very overprotective of his sister, he has a **major** guilt complex that drives that sense of overprotectiveness, and, as it turns out, he has a temper that can turn him pretty savage if pushed too far.

The scene where he ends up hitting his sister and she falls (more specifically the end of that scene where Hanami apologizes to him for something that was his fault) was inspired by an episode of "Digimon Adventure," which I was a HUGE fan of during middle school. During the Dark Masters arc, Kari gets sick and Tai gets obsessively worried about her. He and Izzy go in search of some medicine to cure her, but they are attacked by Machinedramon's forces. When they are momentarily safe, Tai breaks down as recalls a memory of when he and Kari were little kids. Kari was sick with pneumonia and Tai really wanted to go outside and play soccer, so he thought that it would cheer her up if he took her outside and they played together; instead, this caused Kari to collapse. When their parents get to the hospital it is clear that Tai's mom was angry enough to slap him. And then, the worst part, was that after weeks in the hospital and nearly dying, Kari was still so innocent and forgiving even back then that she apologized to Tai for not being able to kick the ball very good, worried that he may never want to play with her again. This apology utterly broke Tai and he formed an overprotective guilt complex related to his sister that stuck with him for years...not unlike how overprotective Matt was of T.K. actually.

In yet another "Digimon" reference, the pig pen scene was a full enactment of something Hanami described to her friends in Chapter 23, which was, in turn, based on an identical story Kari told about her and Tai in episode 21 of "Adventure."

The song in this chapter is "I'll Stand by You" by the Pretenders. The idea is that this was the first song that he ever sang to his sister and where the family discovered his voice. I have to confess that I had a difficult time finding a song that fit with what I wanted the scene to be about, and this one was the best I could come up with. For those who may find it odd that he is singing a song performed by a female artist, Rod Stewart did a cover version of it for his 2006 album "Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time."

Let's see, is there anything else I should talk about? Oh yeah! You all want to know about the Taka agent that Uragi planted as a spy within Suna right? Well I think I made it fairly clear who it is, but if I haven't then I'll leave it to you to figure it out. I assure you that this is the _last_ character I plan to bring back like this! After all, its not like my cast isn't massive enough already!

I think that's all I have for this time. Thanks for reading my story, and I hope to see you back for the next one. Until then, see ya!


	33. Chapter 31--The Tides Turn

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure."

This chapter took me a bit longer to finish because, frankly, this story is getting progressively more difficult to write. That's alright though because you guys make me want to live up to the challenge.

Anyway, a lot of ground and a lot of twists and turns happen in this one, so be prepared.

Well, with that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 31: The Tides Turn**

"Hanami?" Sakura called out to her daughter, "could you please come here sweetie?"

"Alright mommy." The girl went over to her mother innocently, having no clue what might or might not happen next.

Sakura kept her eye on two of the other kids standing nearby. "Shinachiku, you too."

A bit surprised why they would want him too, the boy excused himself from Sarada's company and went over to his mother. "What is it mom?"

Sakura put a hand on each of her children's shoulders. "Shina, I want you to be here to support your sister. Hold her hand to help give her your support through what's about to happen."

Hanami suddenly looked scared, "What do you mean mommy?"

"Sweetie," Sakura explained, "your father and I have found a serum made by an...err, an old friend of ours, one that we think can help make you feel better."

"Yay!" Hanami squealed in joy.

Sakura smiled at her daughter as she pulled a vial out of her pocket. It contained a clear orange fluid inside it. Looking at the vial herself, she could not help but frown in worry. 'Oh God, please let this work...And Kabuto, if you've lied to us, then there's no cave or crevice in the world that is deep enough for you to hide where I won't find you!'

"Hanami," she said, "this is the stuff that's going to make you feel better. Now after I get this ready I need to be a big strong girl for me okay?"

Hanami looked scarred for only a moment before nodding her head. "Okay mommy."

With that, Sakura got out a syringe, the same one that she had originally swiped from her hospital when she and Naruto made their escape. It was never used on another person before thankfully and now it had been properly and thoroughly sterilized and cleared of all traces of the original serum by Sakura herself. She loaded the vial of antidote into the syringe.

"Shina," she said, "hold her hand."

The boy did as he was told. Hanami felt her nerves relax as her big brother was beside her.

"Hanami," he said, "keep your eyes on me, okay? This will be over before you know it."

She did as her brother asked of her as Sakura found the proper blood vessel and prepared to deliver the inoculation. She felt like she was going to sweat buckets. Dear Lord, this was her little girl here! If this serum didn't work then it could kill her!

But what could she do? Shikamaru was right, they couldn't use to hospital to analyze the serum, and sneaking in when who know how many Taka infiltrators could find them was too big of a risk. No, they evaluated every option, and in the end, it all came down to this one, gigantic roll of the dice.

'Biting her lip and acting before she could change her mind, she injected the needle into the blood vessel and injected the serum...

The inoculation was as painless as possible, the equivalent to what a child feels when they get a flu shot...Well, the more tolerant kids at least. Shinachiku was holding his sister's hand the entire time, his grip tightening slightly as he saw the serum enter Hanami's blood. It wouldn't have surprised him if she was taking this even better than he was.

When it was all done, Sakura removed the needle from her daughter and gotten some First Aid supplies that Gaara was able to get her from inside the house. She used alcohol and a rag to clean the puncture point before she put a band aid on the spot.

She then let out a very deep breath. "There, all done. How do you feel sweetie?" She asked that question with a clear sense of nervousness.

"I feel alright mommy."

"Mom," Shinachiku sad as he let go of her hand, "how do we know whether or not it worked?"

"We're just going to have to see whether or not her chakra network unblocks itself or not." She contemplated the next best move and decided that their best option for the moment was to have faith and let time take it's course. "Let's give it some time, say an hour or so, and we'll see if there's any improvement."

Sakura looked her daughter straight in the eye to make sure she had her attention. "Sweetie, I want you to come to me the moment you feel anything strange or if you start getting any worse. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes mommy."

Sakura couldn't resist bringing her daughter into a hug, which the little girl happily returned. Closing her eyes and taking joy in their embrace, the pink-haired medical ninja told herself to give herself confidence, 'She'll be alright, I know it.'

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto had gone inside the house with Gaara, Sasuke and Shikamaru. There were sitting at the dining room table each with a cup of tea that Gaara had made for them. They were filling the Kazekage in on everything that was happening and why Naruto and Sakura were now wanted fugitives in the first place. They also broke the news to him about Taka, with Sasuke giving him the full runaround that the Taka in question was _not_ the same team that he was leading, and most importantly of all that Taka had planted double agents within all five of the great shinobi villages.

It's not every day that you find out at the absolutely anybody within the village you are in charge of could be a spy waiting to stab you in the back at a moment's notice. Gaara took the news pretty well... "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

Naruto frowned as he put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Yeah, it was pretty ruff on me too."

Gaara put his head in his hands. "I know my own flesh and blood would never do this to me, so Kankurō is clean, but anyone else..."

Naruto made an honest and sincere apology to his friend. "I'm sorry Gaara." Regretfully, he removed his hand from his shoulder and took another sip of his tea.

"I still don't understand," Gaara said as he turned to Sasuke, "why is this group using your team's name?"

"To frame me," Sasuke stated flatly. "To use me as a scapegoat for their crimes and also, perversely, to try and adapt the ideas about restoring world order that I _used_ to believe in to their own ends."

"Fascinating," Gaara said flatly as he took all of this in. He then turned back to Naruto. "And you say that they intend to use the Chakra Gems as the weapons for their plans?"

"Yes," Shikamaru answered for his friend and boss. "And believe me when I tell you that the gem that Naruto and Sasuke's kids found in Uzushiogakure has a power that needs to be seen to be believed. This thing can release a beam of energy powerful enough to wipe out a whole village instantly!"

Gaara took in this information in shock, "Like the chakra of the tailed beasts...And if Taka gets a hold of the gem we have, plus the one that you possess...?"

"Exactly. And that's not even taking into account the possibility that Taka may have some of the other gems already."

The sand master paused, "So where is your Chakra Gem now?"

This time Naruto answered for himself. "I've hidden it, somewhere safe where my son won't be able to find it."

"Your son?"

Naruto looked really uncomfortable with the memory. "I don't want to talk about it."

Gaara could tell that whatever was going on, his friend was not at all comfortable with discussing it, so he let it be. "Very well then. What is the plan now?"

"That's what we're here to discuss," Sasuke said. "We need to find a way to contact the other three kages and expose Taka's conspiracy across the world before it's too late."

Gaara suddenly bolted up in reaction, having an epiphany there on the spot. "I think I have a possible solution to our problem, one that our enemy themselves handed right to us."

Naruto sat up straight in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"Listen to me," Gaara said to ensure he got the other three men's attention. "A few days ago, Uragi sent me a message that he was calling a special Kage Summit to discuss a 'special proposal' of sorts, one that involves securing something that could spell disaster for any of the shinobi villages if aloud to fall into the wrong hands."

The three Konoha ninja all glanced at one another, taking in this news in unspoken conversation.

"You don't say? I can't even begin to imagine what that certain something might be," Naruto replied in sarcasm.

"I think I see where my brother-in-law is coming from Naruto," Shikamaru said. "This means that the five—err, four—kages will all be gathered in one place. If Gaara goes in as a spy, he can clue in the other kages and expose Uragi right on the spot."

"That's a pretty big gamble to take," Sasuke countered. "Whose to say that Uragi won't just assassinate the four of them before Gaara has any time to do anything?"

"I fear you may be underestimating my abilities Uchiha," Gaara retorted. "Still, I would be only one man against who knows how many fellow Taka agents Uragi will have with him at the Summit."

Naruto then made his contribution to the discussion with his own spark of inspiration. "Which is exactly why we have the advantage of having so many allies right here in this very house."

Sasuke turned his head to his best friend, "What the heck are you talking about dobe?"

"I'm saying that Gaara's right, one person on the inside isn't going to cut it. But if we can find a way to sneak in my team as well, them we could strategize a plan that could not only work, but we would have the numbers and broad range of skills needed to put up at least some sort of defense against whatever agents Taka has poised against us."

The other three men took in what Naruto had just said and were in awe at his suggestion. They all looked to one another before looking back to their orange-clad Hokage.

"Dobe," Sasuke said, "I sometimes forget how much of a strategist you can truly be sometimes."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Aw well, its nothing really."

"You're right," Shikamaru suddenly snapped, "it _is_ nothing! What kind of convoluted plan can we come up with the get into the summit that will allow all of us to sneak in unnoticed past Taka agents? Don't forget, you, Sakura and all are friends are wanted fugitives now!"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched erratically as he sweat dropped. "Boy, you never cease to be a massive buzz killer Shikamaru."

"No, I'm just doing my job as your adviser, which at the moment means keeping your head out of the clouds and letting you know when you're getting overconfident without _actually_ having put together a plan yet!"

"Pardon me gentlemen," Gaara interrupted as politely as possible, "but if we are truly going to strategize such a comprehensive plan, shouldn't we then allow our friends in on this conversation as well?"

The three Konoha ninja looked to one another before agreeing.

* * *

Soon Kazekage's dining room was literally backed to bursting with all thirty-nine guests that were currently residing in his and Sunako's house. Naruto was there with his wife Sakura and both of their children Shinachiku and Hanami, while Sasuke and Karin were both with their daughter Sarada. Then there was the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho teams, now all united together as a trio of families: Sai and Ino sat with their son Inojin, Shikamaru and Gaara's sister Temari sat with their own son and Gaara's nephew Shikadai, and Chōji and Kauri sat with their daughter Chōchō. Kiba and Hinata (and the family dog's Akamaru, Akamoro and Akamiri) were together with their twins Ōkami and Tsuta, while Lee and Tenten sat with their son Burandon and Shino sat with his son Bagu. Beside the Uchiha family were the remaining three members of Sasuke's team, Suigetsu, Jūgo and Randamu. The old masters chose to stay beside their former pupils: Kakashi sat near both the Uzumaki and the Uchiha families, as did Tsunade and Shizune, while Guy's wheelchair was beside the Lee family and Kurenai sat beside the Hyūga family. Yamato was beside Kakashi while Konohamaru took his place next to Shinachiku, feeling a need to be at the side of his student. Both Sunako and Kankurō were at Gaara's side.

It hadn't occurred to Gaara until that moment just how massive his guest situation truly was...

"Attention!" he called out to the other forty people gathered around him, including his own daughter. "Attention everyone!" The crowd of allies quieted down. "Thank you. Now listen, Naruto, Uchiha, Shikamaru and I asked all of you here because we in this house represent the last, best hope against the new enemy that threatens our world now. I trust that everyone here has been filled in on the whole story?"

Kakashi raised his hand, "Actually Gaara, my friends and I were only taken prisoner to allow these kids to escape with Hanami. We actually don't know who exactly is responsible for all of this."

"Yeah uncle, we don't know what going on either," Shikadai replied.

Gaara hung his head, "Of course not."

They then spent the next twenty minutes of so outlining the whole conspiracy to everyone in the room who had not been told yet. The adults and the children alike took the news with the same kind of shock and is some cases disgust that Gaara had.

"Dear God..." Temari let out.

"Son of a bitch," Kankurō cursed.

Kakashi's eyes glossed over in horror, "All those years I was Hokage I had Taka spies working right under my nose, and I never suspected anything." He closed his eyes in shame, "This is all my fault."

"No sensei," Sakura said, "its all our fault. We were all blind to this and now we all need to work together to find a way to fix it."

"She's right," Yamato agreed, "We're all in this together now."

Kurenai didn't say anything aloud, but within her mind she was being tormented by the realization that her daughter was, hopefully, still residing within the village, and if she was, then she was unknowingly working as a means to Taka's end and she did not even know it.

"I can't believe this," Tsuki said aloud.

"This is such bullshit!" Ōkami snapped.

"Watch your mouth young man!" Hinata snapped in an unnatural, and therefore terrifying, outburst of anger, causing the boy to apologize and remain silent.

Shikadai was wide eyed in shock, "I knew Uragi was keeping some kind of secrets, but _this...!_"

"He fooled us all," Inojin concurred.

"So what can all of us do?" Chōchō questioned. "We're only thirty-eight people and three dogs against who knows how many Taka ninjas from _five_ different villages!"

"That's where you're wrong," Sasuke said, not to the girl specifically but rather to all of the children. "You kids are staying out of this one."

All eleven of the children let out a gigantic gasp, _"WHAT?!"_

"I'm sorry kids, but it's not up for debate," Shikamaru added. "We all just found you again and all of you were already in over your heads just getting Hanami out of the village. We're _not_ going to ask you to come with us to take down some evil conglomerate that could wipe you all out!"

Shikadai raised his voice to object, "But dad—"

"Shikadai!" Temari snapped, "I think it's for the best that you do what your father says."

"Mom?!"

"I was afraid I was going to loose you! I don't want to feel that way again!"

"But we're ninjas!" Ōkami protested. "Going into danger is what we do! You can't just tell us to stay home at a time like this!"

"We can and we are!"

Everyone turned to see the source from which the voice had come from...Naruto.

Shinachiku was utterly stunned, and utterly let down to hear his own father say that. "Dad? Why?"

Naruto looked at his son and answered. "Why? Because I nearly lost both of you once already, that's why! Hanami just got an antidote after she had her chakra network sealed up. You and Sarada nearly died getting the Chakra Gem. I had to watch as my only son was driven made with a lust for power because of that damned thing!"

The other kids, including Hanami, all looked to their blonde-haired friend in shock. Inojin was the one to ask, "What's he talking about Shina?"

The boy wanted to brush it off quickly, "It's nothing, forget about it."

Naruto continued, "I'm sorry Shina, but I want you to stay here and keep your sister safe while your mother and I go deal with this."

"But dad...I thought...I thought you said that this was supposed to be _my_ story?"

The boy's father frowned. It pained him what he was going to have to say next, but his heart left him no other choice.

"You're right, I did say that. I told you son that this was _your_ story, where _your_ legend began, and I told you that your story was whatever you made it out to be." He paused and closed his eyes, opening them again a second later. "But I'm still your father, and this adventure has ballooned into something far greater than a simple treasure hunt. This family has gone through too much as it is and you and your sister especially! I'm sorry Shina, but as your father I _can't_ let you or your friends come with us. That's an order."

"But—"

"I said 'That's an **order!**'"

The boy was distraught. After all that had happened, after all of the faith his father had put in him, and now look what it all meant...

"Anyway," Sasuke spoke, "we invited you kids into this conversation so that you all can know where your parents are going, but none of you are going to be taking on Taka yourselves. Is that understood?"

Sarada tried to object herself, "But dad—"

"Is that understood?!"

The raven-haired girls folded her arms in a huff. "Fine!"

Karin looked down upon her daughter in pity. "Sweetheart, I know this must seem harsh, but your father and uncle are only doing what they feel is right for you."

The girl grumbled under her breath. "Easy for you to say, you guys all get to go."

"What was that young lady?!"

"Nothin'!"

All of the kids were visibly disappointed and some made their own protests to their parent's. However, said parents seemed to all be in like mind that after just now reuniting with their children they were not yet ready to see the go off into battle against an enemy as resourceful as Taka. Suffice to say, none of them were happy about it.

"How unyouthful this is!" Burandon shouted aloud. For once, all of the other kids were in complete agreement with him.

Kakashi shared a knowing look at his compatriots, who nodded their heads in silent conversation. He then spoke on their behalf: "If I may, perhaps it would be wise if Guy, Tsunade and the rest of us stay here as well to keep an eye on the children?"

Sakura reacted in surprise, "Wait, Kakashi-sensei, don't you want to come with us?"

The former copy ninja shook his head, "No thanks. I'm old and past my prime now, we all are. This fight isn't our destiny."

"As terribly lacking in youth as it is, I feel I must agree with Kakashi on this one," Guy replied.

Kurenai rolled her eyes, "Well, if these two idiots are staying I suppose _somebody_ needs to keep them out of trouble. I don't think Gaara will be too happy to come home and find that were totally trashed his home."

"I've helped guide you in becoming a man Naruto," Yamato said. "You've achieved complete control over the Nine-Tails, so I can see no reason why an old man like me can be of much help. Besides, I'd probably just slow you down anyway."

"I'll stay here with Lady Tsunade," Shizune answered for the both of them.

Konohamaru shook his head. "Naruto, if it's all the same to you I think I'd like to come with you on your mission."

"Konohamaru-sensei?!"

"Shina, you've done _great!_ You used all the skills I've taught you and you completed your mission to recover a terrible weapon before it fell into our enemy's hands. But now I want you to relax and let the grown ups deal with this one."

Shinachiku could not believe what he was hearing! Even his own teacher was telling him to sit this one out! He grumbled under his breath, "Hai sensei..."

"Very well Konohamaru," Naruto said, "I'd be honored to have you join us on this mission."

The Sarutobi clan member smirked, "Just like old times, huh nii-chan?"

Naruto smiled before he began speaking again. "Alright then, now that that's been straightened out, lets get down to plotting out—"

"Naruto wait!"

The room fell silent as Lady Tsunade broke her silence by calling out to the young blonde Hokage. She appeared quite worried, and perhaps heartbroken, at whatever it was she had to say.

"What is it m'lady?" Sakura asked in concern.

She stared Naruto straight in the eye, much to the blonde's confusion. "Naruto, there's something very important I have to tell you."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Naruto...when we were captured back in Konoha, we were captured by an platoon of Anbu Black Ops. That platoon was led by a large man in a cloak. It was...it was..."

Tsunade could not finish her sentence as she broke down in tears at the memory. Naruto and Sakura both appeared worried for her as Shizune finished her sentence for her.

"Naruto, Master Jiraiya has returned...and he's working for the enemy."

The jinchūriki felt his blood run cold. "W-What...?"

Kakashi hung his head in sadness. He knew that this revelation couldn't be anything less than a nightmare for his old student, but even so he could not deny the truth. "Naruto...it's true. We saw his face clear as day and it was unmistakable...Taka has him...We're sorry."

Naruto blanked out for a moment; this was too much. 'Pervy Sage...Master...?'

Sakura put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "Naruto..."

That was enough to break the blonde out of his daze. He didn't realize it himself, but the slightest traces of tears were clustering in the corners of his eyes. Coming back to reality, he could see everyone else in the room were looking at him, some in confusion, others in pity. But no matter what they may have been feeling, none of them could find the right words to say to their friend in this moment.

"Daddy, are you alright?"

Naruto looked down at his daughter and put on one of his familiar fake smiles. "Y-yeah, yeah daddy's fine sweetheart. Don't you worry about me."

Shinachiku remained silent. He knew exactly who Master Jiraiya was, he'd read his father's book so many times that he felt as though he knew him just as well as if he had ever gotten the opportunity to meet him personally. He was an amazingly bright and powerful ninja, one of the Legendary Sannin just like Lady Tsunade and the traitor Orochimaru. He was also recognized the world over as the Toad Sage, the great disciple of Mount Myōboku. He was also very much aware of how close the old man was to his father; in many ways, he was the grandfather that Naruto never had growing up. When he died at the hands of the Akatsuki criminal Pain, it left a hole in his father's heart that took a long time to heal.

And now he was back, and he was enslaved into the service of the enemy...just like Shinachiku's grandparents...

Sakura shared a sentimental glance at Sasuke and, for once, the Uchiha was feeling genuine pity for his old friend. He wasn't lashing out in anger, nor was he totally breaking down in tears. No, he was trying to bottle his emotions inside...which in Naruto's case was much, _much_ worse.

"Hey listen Naruto," Sasuke began, "I know this must be hard for you—"

"I know what you're going to say Sasuke, thank you." The orange ninja took a deep breath. "To tell you the truth, I'd be feeling that much worse if it weren't for what happened in the Whirlpool Village."

Yamato became instantly alert at that statement. "What are you talking about?"

Now it was everyone else's turn to the look depressed. Of all the people in this room, only Gaara, the old masters, and the children whose names weren't Shinachiku and Sarada did not yet know who else Taka had managed to bring into their clutches.

Naruto paused for a long while before he dropped the bomb on those around him. "While we were in the Hidden Whirlpool Village, a pair of Taka assassins appeared and attacked us. They..." Naruto pause for a solid five seconds as he gathered his will to finish what he was now had to reveal. "They were my parents."

There was an audible gasp that echoed across the room. Every person there who had not known this horrific truth was rocked to the core...except for Kakashi. The aging ninja master was left in regret as the worst case scenario that had come into his brain while in that prison cell in Konoha came to reality.

"I'm sorry Naruto," was all the son of the White Fang was able to say.

Naruto was going to say more, but he was cut off when they group heard a loud knock on the door. Gaara shushed his house full of guests as Naruto signaled for all of them—the men, the women, the children, and the aged (even Guy somehow managed to pull it off) to take cover—as Gaara got up and walked over to the door.

Answering the door, the former jinchūriki was greeted by a mysterious stranger wearing a cloak. The stranger's face was totally concealed in a hood.

"Lord Kazekage?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

"I come in search of the guests you are currently keeping in your residence."

"I'm afraid there must be some sort of mistake. There are no guests staying in my home at this time, only myself and my daughter."

"My eyes tell me otherwise."

Gaara suddenly got defensive, "Who are you?"

"Let's just say I'm a friend of a friend." The stranger than snapped his fingers and a platoon of Sand ninja appeared at the Kazekage's doorstep. Gaara instantly got into a defensive stance and let the sand loose from his gourd.

Gaara was quick to make his move, but the stranger was just barely quicker and hit a vital chakra point in Gaara's arm.

"AAAGGHH!"

One of the ninja then instantly came up and injected a red-colored serum into Gaara's body via a syringe. The Kazekage could already feel his chakra getting week, so he knew he would need to rely on his taijutsu training only. Throwing a barrage of punches and kicks, the stranger was able to block every blow with some very impressive speed and agility. The stranger's rapid succession of strikes kept targeting Gaara's chakra points; despite Gaara's best defense he kept hitting him over and over again, until finally all of Gaara's chakra was gone and the the sand master was left a comatose mess on the floor.

"HEY!"

The vice came from the hallway. The stranger and his forces turned to see a thirty-something Leaf ninja in a garish green one piece suit get into a taijutsu pose.

"Who are you?! How dare you attack the Kazekage?!"

The stranger, his face still invisible to Lee because of the hood, smirked at the ninja before him now. "Still as determined and youthful as ever I see."

The taijutsu master momentarily let down his guard. "Y-You know me?"

The stranger did not even bother to answer the question as he dashed at Jōnin-level speed at Lee, deflecting all of his chops and falcon kicks that he'd spent his life working to master. It was truly remarkable that he was able to predict Lee's movements so well. It was almost as though...

"AAAGGHHH!" Lee gasped in pain as one of his chakra points was punctured. He'd barely had time to get his footing again before it happened again...and again...and again.

"LEAF HURRI—!" Lee did not get to finish one of his signature attacks because the stranger knocked him out with a really hard blow to the head.

"Get away for him!"

Tenten was furious at the sight of her husband getting attacked. She did not hesitate to get out her scrolls and unleash her full arsenal of weapons. "TWIN RISING—AAAAGGGGHHHH!"

The stranger did not even want to bother with a physical fight this time. While he may have grimaced over his action (an expression that none were able to see due to his hood), he quickly signaled a ninja the throw a syringe into Tenten's leg. The effects were acting quickly enough to force her onto her knee, subsequently causing her weapons to fall to the ground...save for one which was able to the shoot out and cut the stranger in the arms, causing him to grimace in pain as he briefly grabbed said arm.

He went over to Tenten and, though it was too quiet for her to hear it, he said two words to her, "I'm sorry...", before delivering a knockout blow to the back of her neck.

By now all of the commotion had become too loud for the other guests not to notice. Naruto and his friends, and some of the children, came running into the hallway and were horrified at what they saw.

Burandon was on the verge of crying manly tears. "Mother...Father..." These tears then quickly turned to anger as he screamed at the hooded stranger. "DAMN YOOOOUUUU!"

Guy tried desperately to cry out to the boy to get him to calm his nerves, but was unable to move because of his damned wheelchair.

The green-clad boy charged at the stranger like a madman, spinning his body around and delivering a massive blow to the hooded man. "LEAF HURRICANE!"

The stranger's reaction was to merely catch the boy's leg in mid-air, much to Burandon's shock, and throw him hard against the wall, casing him to collapse to the ground in pain.

"Burandon!" Tsuki called out in worry. Sunako also made an attempt to go and help her father, but Temari held her niece back, getting out her own giant iron fan instead.

Naruto was getting angry, _really_ angry! Three of his friends were already taken down and now so had one of their kids. Not hesitating to take action, he started laying out orders on the spot.

"Alright! Shikamaru, you use your shadow to hold this guy in place. Temari, create a whirlwind and blow these bastards out of my friend's house!"

Not even bothering to acknowledge his boss, Shikamaru quickly went to work. "SHADOW POSSESSION JUTSU!"

The stranger was never captured in the grip of the expanded shadow, it was as if the shadow was repelling itself away from the enemy. Temari didn't let up on her opening regardless as she let out a gust from her mighty fan. She wasn't planning on holding back, opening her fan quickly to reveal all three stars "SICKLE WEASEL!"

The Sand ninja were quickly blown out of the house...but the stranger himself remained where he was. It was as if her chakra-enhanced wind powers were totally useless against this mysterious enemy.

Sakura's eyes widened in horror as she was able to realize quickly what was going on. 'He's been given the blue serum, just like Minato and Kushina!"

Temari's momentary surprised that her jutsu had no effect, much like what happened at Naruto and Sakura's wedding all those years ago, gave the stranger just the opening he needed to make a dash towards her and strike her chakra points and then knock her out with a blow to the neck similar to Tenten.

"TEMARI—AAGGGHHH!" Shikamaru's scream for his wife was cut off when another syringe struck him in the neck, followed by another knockout blow to the neck.

"You bastard!" Kankurō screamed as he got out one of his trusty puppets to fight for him. "Go Salamander!"

The puppet made its way towards the hooded figure at a speed reflecting it's master's rage. But the figure merely sidestepped the puppet's attack as the other ninja began filing back into the house. The stranger engaged in a taijutsu match with the Salamander, and Kankurō's focus on utilizing the puppet against this surprisingly formidable opponent was enough to keep him distracted long enough for one of the traitorous Sand ninja to strike him with a syringe of the red serum. The stranger crushed the puppet and delivered the finishing blow to the middle Sand Sibling's neck. His last words before blacking out were directed at the Sand ninja that were attacking them. "Traitorous...bastards..."

Now to be fair, its not as though no one saw the needle coming and tried to help him. Suigetsu and Jūgo both made a move to launch attacks to the help their new ally. However, both of them were tripped up, literally, by an unseen force behind them, Before they knew what had happened, both Taka members were on the floor of the house and quickly jabbed with the red serum. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was when they each got a look at who it was that had done this to them.

"You...?"

Jūgo and Suigetsu didn't get to say anything more, as the one responsible quickly used his hand to cut off their air supply and muffle their screams so no one could hear them. After struggling for several seconds, the two of them finally passed out.

By now the fight had gone outside the house, Sai was currently in battle with the hooded stranger, using an ink clone to fight alongside himself. He and the clone hacked and slashed at the stranger until the stranger managed to get the Anbu in a death grip and jabbed a chakra point. Sai's moment of pain was the opening a Sand ninja needed to strike him with a syringe of chakra serum...

...Or it would have been, had Ino not used her family's jutsu to invade the Sand ninja's mind with the intention of throwing the syringe at the enemy instead. Chōji and Karui were given responsibility to keep a guard over her body, but unfortunately they were too busy fighting off more Sand ninjas.

"EXPANSION JUTSU!" Chōji shouted as he enlarged his hand to slam down on the enemy. Karui did not have any weapons on her but she was able to use her masterful taijutsu talents to hold the enemy back. But alas, too many Sand ninjas gathered on top of her at once and she was struck with the serum. Chōji was about to come to his wife's aid but another ninja injected him in the back. Both of them were knocked out with a really hard kick to the face.

With her defense gone, Ino's body was unprotected, meaning that a Sand ninja did not hesitate and almost instantly jabbed a syringe of red serum into the neck of Ino's body. This caused Ino's jutsu to instantly cancel out and force her to return to her body, where she was conscious for maybe two seconds before getting knocked out.

With Ino no longer controlling his actions, the Sand ninja was free to throw his syringe of serum at Sai. The former Root member was alert enough to deflect it, but he was not quick enough to dodge another syringe thrown by yet another ninja less than half a second later. With the serum now inside his bloodstream, Sai's ink clone came undone and collapsed into a massive blob of ink. The stranger, whom had been fighting the pale-skinned Anbu captain this whole time, promptly clubbed him on the head and knocked him out. And with that, the entire Ino-Shika-Cho formation and their spouses had fallen.

"This is a loosing battle," Shino surmised. "We're dropping one by one!" As he spoke he was unleashing swarms of his insects to bite and sting the Sand ninja that came his way.

"He's right," Kiba agreed, He and Akamaru using their Man-Beast Clone jutsu to hold the enemy back.

"It doesn't matter!" Hinata shouted as she used her taijutsu fighting style and her Byakugan to hold off the enemy forces. "We keep fighting and don't stop for anything!"

The former Team 8 stood back-to-back as the held off the enemy. But then too many Sand ninja gathered around them that the sheer numbers were enough to overwhelm them. Shino and Kiba were both struck with syringes and poor Akamaru, no longer in his master's guise due to the serum, was bound up and muzzled against his will. The dog growled angrily in protest.

This left only six of the allied forces currently standing: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Karin, Randamu and Hinata. The hooded stranger and his troops stared the company of six down coldly. Naruto and his team, for their part, were furious both at this stranger's daringness to attack them and the horrific ease at which he had succeeded.

For Hinata's part, she was staring at the stranger in a sort of trance. She had caught a glimpse of the way he fought, his speed, his precision, his ruthlessness. It almost seemed...familiar.

The stranger spoke coldly as he pointed at them. "You five have all seen what has become of your allies. Taka has crushed their traitorous hides like insects beneath our feet. You, Uzumaki, do you truly believe that you can be victorious against such power?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he already began channeling chakra into his palm for a very large Rasengan. "I don't think I can, I _know_ I can!" He then called out to what remained of his team. "Guys! Back-to-back! Cover each other's flanks!"

The six ninja stood back-to-back and shoulder-to-shoulder to fight off any surprise attack.

The stranger's response to this was merely to laugh. "You're still a fool Naruto, even after all this time." With that, the stranger at last pulled back his hood, revealing his true face.

The reveal of the stranger's identity froze every one of the six in fear. It was a face from the past, an old and trusted friend...A friend that was lost seventeen years ago.

Karin and Randamu did not know this person very well, so their reaction was fairly indifferent...Although Karin did get the suspicion that she had seen him once before, maybe during the war or something...

Sakura and Sasuke were stunned. It could not be true! Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya were already horrible enough, but for the sake of all that sacred not _him_ as well!

But none of their reactions compared to those of Naruto and Hinata. The blonde Hokage was a like a statue. The iron clad resolve and determination he had earlier quickly fading away and even his Rasengan dissipating at the sight of the young man before him. It was the face of a true friend, one who had given his life to save him years ago. One that he had helped save from his own darkness and was aloud to make his own destiny and find peace.

"No..." Naruto said in a lost tone. "No not you too!"

Hinata was unable to say anything. She looked like she had seen a ghost...and indeed she had. One of those she loved most, whom she'd lost so long ago, was back with her now and the Hyūga princess could already feel tears welling up, ready to start flowing.

Before them was a young man, maybe ten years or so younger than them. His face was lean, rigged, and his demeanor was very serious. He had long black hair that framed his face. His eyes were pupiless, and they had a distinctive lavender tint to them that made it perfectly clear what clan he hailed from. Upon his brow was a distinctive green branding, a mark that characterized the branch of his clan that he hailed from and their destiny in life.

Even seeing him so much older now, there was no denying who this was, and it was poor, utterly heartbroken Hinata that had to find the strength to speak his name.

"Neji..."

The formally deceased Leaf ninja smiled arrogantly at all of his former friends, but in particular he was staring down the woman he once called his cousin. "It's been a long time Naruto...Hinata..."

"Neji," Naruto began after getting his focus back, "Neji listen to me. Whatever Uragi's done to you, we can help you! You, Pervy Sage, Mom and Dad—"

"Spare me your pity and your mercy Naruto! I have no use for it! I exist only to serve Taka now!"

"Neji..." Hinata said lost, "but...but we're family..."

The genius of the Hyūga branch family merely stared at the Byakugan princess with a cold, heartless lack of emotion reflected in his eyes. "We're not family anymore Hinata."

And that was all it took to make the woman cry...

"Neji!" Sakura yelled out. "How dare you! Can't you see how much Hinata loves you?! And what do you mean you have no family anymore! You're an uncle now!"

"Not for much longer." He then scanned the house with his Byakugan to find...nothing. It would seem that during all of the chaos caused by all of the fighting, the old masters and Konohamaru Sarutobi managed to sneak the children out of the house to keep them out of Taka's grasp. They'd even somehow found enough time to drag the unconscious body of Lee and Tenten's son with them. Neji cursed himself for falling for such an obvious deception. "Damn it."

Sasuke, fed up with this game, raised his voice defiantly as he began charging up his Chidori. "You'll never find them! And you'll never take us alive you traitorous Taka son of a bitch!"

Neji laughed, "Actually Sasuke, that is where you'd be wrong."

In that instant, Sasuke felt a sharp pain stab him in the back. Screaming in pain from the intrusion, he was forced to fall to his knees.

"Sasuke!" Karin yelled in shock before she too felt the same pain.

Hinata was ready to make her move before even getting a clear look at who had done this to her friends...but she was caught off guard as she felt Neji deliver a crushing blow to her stomach, one that actually made her cough up blood. This gave Neji an opening to start hitting all of her chakra points in rapid succession.

"EIGHT TRIGRAMS! SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!"

Before too long poor Hinata could feel all of her chakra points punctured. Once that was done, she was able to get one last, prolonged look of pity directed at Neji...before her own cousin laid a brutal blow right to her face, knocking her out cold.

He then caught her unconscious body before it fell...and then he pulled a syringe out of his pocket and personally jabbed into her neck.

"YOU SON OF A—AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"

Naruto was on the verge of screamed in pain as he too felt a syringe stab him in the back, forcing him to fall to his knees as well.

"NARU—AAAHHHHHH!"

Sakura was not fast enough to heal her husband before whoever it was that was stabbing them got to her as well.

'Wait a minute!' Sakura's mind went into overdrive even as she could feel her chakra disappearing along with her friend's. 'There's only one other person here among us who could possibly be...!'

Naruto, Sasuke and Karin's minds were apparently all on the same wavelength even as they were growing weaker. Looking ahead of them, they were horrified, and _really_ angered, to see a familiar face walking into their view and taking his place at Neji's side.

Sasuke growled through his teeth, "_Randamu!_"

The red masked missing nin shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say Sasuke? I may be your friend and all, but I'm still a mercenary." He pointed to the resurrected Leaf ninja turned Taka traitor next to him. "And _they_ pay."

Karin practically screamed "You bastard! I'll cut your goddamned head off for this! I don't give a fuck if it does grow back! I'll just keep doing it over and over again!"

"Sounds like fun!" Randamu said a little bit too excitedly.

"After all I did for you!" Sasuke shouted, "After all those missions we had together! You were one of them this whole time?!"

Randamu shrugged again, "Yes and no. I was on your side for a while, but what can I say? Money is money...Plus in a story like this you know that at lest one of the hero's allies would have to be a traitor, right?"

He went up to Sasuke and kneeled down to look him in the eye. "I know that this all must seem bad now, but despite whatever may be about to happen...Do you think we can still be friends after this is over?"

Sasuke's answer was simply to spit on Randamu's boots. This prompted the missing nin to leap back up and kick the Uchiha hard in the face, knocking him out.

Randamu wiped his boots clean, "Now that was just plain rude!"

Karin could feel herself getting weaker and weaker as her hatred for her former teammate only grew. Randamu looked at her with a surprising amount of pity. "I know you must be mad at me...but right now I don't care." He pulled out his katana and knocked her out with the blunt end.

This left only Naruto and Sakura still conscious, to meet whatever fates were about to befall them. This time it was Neji who resumed the talking.

"Well Naruto, considering that you and your wife are currently the two most wanted shinobi across the five nations, I'm willing to give you a choice. You can come with us freely..."

Neji signaled for the Sand ninja under his command to pull their kunai's out on all of Naruto's currently unconscious friends and positioned them under each of their throats. Meanwhile, Randamu unsheathed both of his swords and pointed the sharpened ends straight at Sasuke and Karin's hearts. Neji himself, to Naruto and Sakura's horror, had a kunai at Hinata's neck.

"...Or refuse and watch all of your friends die before you have time to same them all. And don't bother trying to use the Nine-Tail's chakra either or else we'll just kill them anyway."

Naruto was silent. He weighed his options, and damn it, his conscious was informing him that surrender was the best option. All of his friend's lives were not worth the risk of a counter attack right now, Without Kurama's help he and Sakura were already too weak to be of much help anyway. And besides, if they were all alive then they would naturally focus their attention on them and that would give Shinachiku, Hanami, and the rest of the kids more time to escape...Also, if they did mange to escape, then that meant Taka wouldn't get a hold of...

He shared a look with his wife, and without exchanging a single word, they both knew what they had to do.

"Alright Neji," Naruto said. "We surrender."

The Hyūga nodded to the ninjas under his command, who removed their kunai from the unconscious shinobi's necks and thoughtlessly threw their bodies to the floor. Neji, interestingly, had enough respect to lightly lay Hinata's body on the ground, almost like he was trying to pay her respect somehow...

Randamu was going to put Sasuke and Karin down lightly too, but somehow they both slipped out of his hands and fell to the floor in a loud thud. "Oops! Sorry!"

But Randamu's moment of clumsiness, mixed with their already utter defeat, gave the masked man the distraction he need to club both the Hokage and his wife in the head, knocking them out and sending them into the same dreamland that had consumed their friends.

As Naruto was blacking out, one single thought was on his mind. 'Shina...Hanami...be safe...'

When both parents passed out, Neji instructed his men to gather their bodies in a pile as he personally dug through the Kazekage's pockets. "Ah! Found it." Neji pulled out a green gem that was on Gaara's person and took it for his own.

"Alright, return to your posts, he instructed the Sand shinobi. "Randamu and I will take things from here. I trusting you to come up with a convincing story to explain the Kazekage's 'absence.'"

With that, he and Randamu gathered around the bodies and used the gem to transport all of them in a flash of green light.

* * *

In another flash of green light, the group of twenty-one, of which only two were conscious, appeared inside an office inside the Hidden Leaf Village. The light was bright enough that it momentarily blinded the sole occupant of the office. But as soon as the light vanished, the Taka officer in charge pocketed the glowing chakra gem and then stood upright and brought his fist into his chest.

"Hail Taka!"

"At ease son." Neji relaxed at his master's command. "I see your mission was a success."

"Indeed. Uzumaki and his allies have been captured and the Sand Village's Chakra Gem now belongs to Taka."

"Very good. And the children?"

There was only a momentary pause before the Hyūga continued. "They've escaped my lord."

'Damn it.' Uragi got up from his desk and loomed over the bodies. "Neji, I'll speak to you about this later. For right now, put these people in quarantine. But keep the Uzumaki and Uchiha families in special cells. I have some things I'd like to speak to them about later."

* * *

Making their way outside of the village was a group of older ninjas and younger children. All of them were heartbroken to have to say goodbye to their parents...again! And after just reuniting with them too!

Shinachiku Uzumaki was holding his sister's hand, dragging her along to make sure that she could keep up with their escape. Sarada Uchiha was right next to him. Also in their company were Ōkami and Tsuki Hyūga, Inojin Yamanaka, Shikadai Nara, Chōchō Akimichi, Bagu Aburame, and an unconscious Burandon Lee, whose body needed to be carried as they made their escape.

Kakashi and Yamato were scouting the alleyways of Sunagakure, signaling for them to make their move when they were sure that it was safe and they would not be spotted. When they were in an alley where they were sure that they would not bee seen, the set Burandon down and caught their breaths.

"Fuck!" Ōkami cursed. "Those bastards got our parents! What the hell do we do now?!"

"Brother!" Tsuki shouted, "Watch your temper! Getting mad isn't going to help mom and dad."

"She's right," Shikadai agreed, "we need some sort of a plan."

"I have one." The other kids all turned to Shinachiku to learn what it was he had to say. "We're going to save our parents ourselves! And then we're going to stop Taka once and for all!"

The boy meant every work of what he said, especially with the vials of antidote to Taka's cursed chakra nullifying serums in his pocket. What he did not realize was that his old friend Sarada hand something in her pocket as well...a small, red gem.

* * *

Wow! Our poor heroes, everything always manages to bet worse before it gets better. So, yes, Naruto and his friends have all been captured and given the red serum that, if you remember, blocks off their chakra network much like it did to Hanami.

I'm sure a lot of you are shocked at Randamu revealing himself to be a traitor...me too! As I was figuring this story out, I began to realize that as important a theme as friendship and betrayal is in this story, so far all of Naruto's old allies who have been revealed to be Taka double agents have been resurrected characters. I felt it was important to have someone still alive and close to Naruto and friends be a traitor. But, knowing full well how poorly fans, including myself, would find that infuriating. So as an original character (when you overlook the fact that he is directly based on Deadpool), and as a character that so many of you have come to like, Randamu seemed like the natural choice. Besides, he is a mercenary and such a, well, random and unpredictable guy, that it didn't seem out of character either.

In speaking of Randamu, his explanation to Sasuke that he did it because he's a mercenary and Taka pays was inspired by the character Mack from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." At the start of that film, Mack betrays Indy to the Russians and his reasoning was "Well what can I say Jonesey? I'm a capitalist, and they pay."

Gaara's reaction to finding out that Taka had infiltrate his village under his nose for all these years was influenced by a scene fro "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." Miles Dyson has the same reaction ("I think I'm going to throw up") after he finds out about how his work will result in SkyNet becoming self-aware and wipe out humanity. The narration in that scene was written to be similar to Sarah Conner's narration during that moment in the movie.

I intentionally left it unclear whether or not the antidote that Sakura gave Hanami worked or not. Besides adding that much more mystique, the real point of the scene was to emphasize the internal conflict that Sakura was doing this herself. Any mother I'm sure can relate to how terrifying such a situation would be, doing something to your child that may save your child or make them even worse, and not being able to know for sure until after you've already done it.

I liked the idea of putting Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Gaara in a round table discussion. I don't know why, I guess I felt that with two kages, a kage's adviser, and his best friend that clearly had a perspective on all of this that others did not, they were the right choices to hammer out a plan together, as though they were the inherent leaders of this resistance and filling the kind of role the Kage usually fill when they come together.

Some of you might have been put off at how dead set the parents all were about letting their kids in on this mission, but after just now finally reuniting with their children after all of this drama and truly tense and scary stuff, it seemed like the natural thing for them to do. Plus, I felt it would add to the role the kids find themselves in at the end.

I'm also certain that a lot of you think that Naruto and the others were all taken out too easily. This was a bit of narrative convenience on some level, granted, but I can justify it be pointing out that Neji came to them with A LOT of Taka spies within Suna. The idea is that their numbers were simply too large and they were well strategized, never once overlooking a single opening to hit them with the serum. Its kind of like how in "Star Wars" you may question how a bunch of stormtroopers or battle droids are so effective in defeating the Jedi when they are so powerful. The answer comes down to strategy, the element of surprise, and sheer numbers.

Neji is roughly ten years younger than the other characters here. The idea is that when Taka resurrected him (say ten years of so after the war) he was the same age he was when he died and he aged naturally from there. Also, yes, Neji's cursed seal is in place. The way I reasoned it was that the seal vanished when Neji died, thus sealing away the Byakugan, but once he was brought back it subsequently came back with him since, lets face it, the Byakugan would be Taka's primary reason for wanting to bring a Hyūga back.

Neji's line "Spare me your pity and your mercy Naruto! I have no use for it!" was lifted from the extended edition of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Saruman says the same thing to Gandalf before he tries launching a fireball at him...and before Gandalf promptly breaks his staff.

Originally this chapter was going to go a different way and Naruto and the others really were going to come up with some convoluted plan to infiltrate Taka's ranks in time for the Summit. But I had so many characters by this point that I was having trouble finding something for them all to do. More importantly, I decided that it took away from the point of this story to highlight the next generation. Additionally, I had a conversation with my friend samuraipanda85 and we both agreed that with the established characters drawing readers in, sooner or later the time would come for the children to get off the sidelines and start playing more heroic roles. After all, _Shinachiku_ is the title character of this story, not Naruto.

Heck, even the title of this chapter was a challenge. I wanted something that would reflect the theme of the events here, but I did not want to give anything away either. So yes, some of you might have thought that the tide would turn in favor of our heroes...nope.

I think that's everything for this time. Thank you again for all the support, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, see ya!


	34. Chapter 32--Ace In the Hole

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out, I had some busy times these last couple of weeks. But no matter, the chapter is here now and I hope you enjoy it.

I will say upfront that this one contains a bit of a retcon of the last chapter, in response to some of you guy's criticism (particularly sasadoll) that I had Naruto and the others taken out way to easily last chapter. Well, try reading this week's chapter and maybe you'll fell better.

Also, I would like to encourage my fellow NaruSaku fans to remain strong right now. Why? Because we are now in October and very soon after this chapter gets posted (as in the following week if I'm not mistaken) both the final volume of the manga and "The Last: Naruto the Movie" will be seeing an America release. Now I'm hoping that the pain of it won't be quite and bad as it was this same time last year, but it will probably still be tough on all of us. So remain strong my fellow NaruSaku's and we'll get through this!

So, with all that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 32: Ace In the Hole**

It was dark and frigid as Naruto Uzumaki finally began to awake with heavy, sagging eyes. He took in his surroundings to find that he and Sakura were being held in a special wing inside of Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility, one reserved for the most elite and potentially dangerous of all criminals...Exactly where he would choose to incarcerate someone as powerful as himself, so he couldn't fault Uragi for doing to same thing.

Taking in his surroundings, he found that he and Sakura were together in a single, dank prison cell with a single cot and a lone toilet in the corner of the room, one that clearly had not been cleaned in a good long while. For the moment Sakura was still not yet awake from their earlier defeat at the hands of a certain "old friend," but that was not their only problem.

Both Naruto and his wife where currently standing straight up, their feet chained and bound up like a mummy, and their arms locked in chains above their heads, the chains linked over the top bars of their cell to hang them in place.

"Another fine mess we've fallen into, huh dobe?"

The blonde jinchūriki turned his head ahead of himself to see a second cell directly across from them. He would recognize the source of the voice from anywhere, but is still distressed him to see it for himself. In the opposite cell were Sasuke and Karin, both of whom were bound up like he was, and like Sakura, Karin had not yet recovered from getting knocked out.

"How long have we been down here?" Naruto questioned.

Sasuke answered nonchalantly, "No idea, barely woke up minutes before you did."

"Where are the others?"

"My guess is that Uragi is keeping them all in separate cells. He likely wanted to single the four of us out for special precautions."

Naruto nodded his understanding before his looked down at his waist.

"Don't be an idiot Naruto! You're smart enough to know that they stripped us all of our weapons before locking us up."

The blonde frowned in annoyance. "Of course I know that duckbutt! But pardon me if I try to find _some_ kind of silver lining in this mess!" Naruto let out a deep sigh following his outburst. "I just don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

"How the hell they got the jump on us like that! I don't mean to put all of us on a high horse or anything, but for God's sake, we're all _way_ better than this!"

Sasuke actually chuckled, "_Finally!_ Something you and I can actually agree on!" But as soon as the Uchiha survivor's uncharacteristic moment of levity had emerged, it was cut off just as quickly as he heard some rustling right next to him.

Turning his head to the side, Sasuke was relieved to see that his wife was finally coming to, shaking her head of whatever dizziness was affecting it. "W-Wha? What's going...?" She looked to her side, "Sasuke?!"

"Hey Karin, glad to see you're awake."

In his own cell, the conversation had apparently been loud enough to stir Sakura from her slumber as well. Groaning herself, she reacted to her surrounding a few seconds quicker than Karin did, initially panicking when she realized he was chained up.

"Sakura! Calm down!"

The medical ninja turned to her side, seeing her husband chained up beside her. Seeing him bound and hanging from the ceiling along with her, it made her feel relieved that he was with her and terrified of their fate all at the same time.

"Naruto what's going on? Where are we?"

"The four of us seem to be in the Correctional Facility back home. Uragi must have singled us out."

"The four of us?" Naruto nudged his head towards the other cell where she saw Sasuke and Karin in a similar predicament. "Oh. Umm...hey guys, how're you doing?"

Karin responded with sarcasm, "Well I just got betrayed by one of my own teammates, got myself drugged with a serum that's nullified all of my chakra, my daughter's on the run with all of her friend's, and currently I'm hanging from the ceiling of an elite Konoha prison cell...But other than that I'm doing _great!_"

Sakura frowned in sympathy; its not like she couldn't relate. "Where are the others?"

Sasuke answered, "We don't know."

She sighed, "So what now?"

"I guess for now we wait and try to figure something out, something we can do to get out of here without either our weapons or any of our chakra. No easy task to say the least."

Sakura couldn't resist voicing something else that was on her mind, "How did we all end up in this mess anyway? A team of as many war-hardened Jōnin and kages like us shouldn't have been defeated so easily!"

"Sasuke and I were discussing the same thing before you two woke up," Naruto said. But after a moment of silence, the blonde suddenly remembered something. "Say, does anybody remember feeling a little bit woozy before the attack started?"

Karin's attention suddenly peaked. "Yeah, yeah I do remember kind of getting a slight headache or something; I figured it was stress for everything we've been through."

"I remember feeling a bit tired as well," Sakura added, "I probably brushed it off like you did—"

"That son of a bitch!"

The other three shinobi turned in the direction of Sasuke following his sudden outburst. It was Naruto who questioned him, "What's the matter?"

"I think I know why Neji and his Taka goons were able to beat us so easily. It was because Randamu drugged all of us even before they ever got there."

"What?!" Sakura gasped. "How can that be?!"

"Because he spiked the air conditioning in Gaara's house."

The other three stared at their friend in shock and confusion, causing the Uchiha to let out a sigh as he proceeded to explain.

"Listen, Randamu has been a part of my team for several missions away from the village now, during which time he's shown himself to be well versed in a number of different skills. On one mission we needed to defeat and arrest a cartel of highly trained missing-nin from the Land of Water, all of whom had an above average bounty on their heads. We needed a strategy to defeat them and Randamu came to us with an idea."

"What did he do?" Naruto asked in interest, as was Sakura. Karin however was hanging her head in shame as she now remembered clearly what her husband was getting at.

"Randamu knew a formula to develop a gas, an airborne toxin that was non-lethal but instead worked to slow the reactions of anyone who breathed it in for a short period of time. This gave us an advantage during our attack as the missing nin were not able to fight at their full alertness, making our victory far easier than it would have otherwise."

Sakura caught on to where he was going with this. "So then Randamu must have found a way to sneak a canister of his toxin into Gaara's air conditioning when no one was looking, and then all of us must have breathed it in while we were all together in Gaara's house."

Naruto however was still confused, "But should we have been able to detect this toxin's presence?"

"No," Sasuke stated flatly. "Randamu specifically developed the gas to by totally undetectable, even for a high-level Jōnin. No odor, no taste, nothing."

"Jeez," Naruto cursed under his breath. "And you didn't see fit to tell us about any of this before?"

"Why would I have? Its not as though it was ever relevant until now!" He sighed aloud again and continued on. "Anyway, when you combine the effects of the gas with Neji's pre-existing knowledge of all of our fighting styles and techniques, plus the abilities granted by his Byakugan, and the added ease with which our slowed reflexes made it to hit us with their red serum, plus the immunity they all had thanks to taking the blue serum, perhaps its no wonder that Taka had such an easy time defeating all of us?"

Naruto's eyes glossed over in realization, "They had this whole thing planned out...they had us all licked before we even began fighting. We all focused as best we could but it wasn't enough; they were too well organized. It was a flawless strategy."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence that followed for the next several minutes as the sheer weight of their enemies' resourcefulness sunk in. If Taka had truly been plotting and infiltrating since the end of the war, and if they had this much time to study and prepare to confront those who would oppose them, then who knows what other plans they had in store for them?

"Sasuke," Sakura questioned, "how long is this gas Randamu used on us supposed to last?"

"It's effects only last about a hour or so, meaning that depending on how long we've been unconscious, it probably wore off a long time ago. But—"

"But it doesn't matter," Naruto finished as his brain connected the dots. "The effects of the gas was just to give Neji and his squad the opening they needed to fight us and let the serum do the real work. Couple that with a well-handled knock out blow, and we were all already their prisoners."

Sasuke frowned, "Exactly."

Karin jumped in with a question. "But why go through all this trouble just to capture us and bring us back to Konoha? Why not just take the opportunity to kill us all?"

It was at that moment that the door opened, catching the attention of the four of them. Inside stepped none other than Uragi Rimonō himself.

"I can answer that question," Uragi said. "You're here because I've got some questions that you're going to answer for me. And no Uzumaki, none of you have a say in the matter."

Naruto merely smirked in arrogance, "Fine by me, because I've got a few questions for you too, _Councilman_."

* * *

The children and their aged shinobi guardians made it to the gate that marked the border of the Hidden Sand Village. It was not an easy feat as they needed to remain undercover and avoid being seen by anyone. Fortunately, Sunako was able to use her sand to drill an escape route beneath the ground that would take her right beneath the village and far enough outside of the gate so that no one would spot them.

Of course, the downside to this escape plan was that they were still in the middle of the desert, so being underground in such a dry, waterless environment meant that they were contracting an awful lot of heat. By the time that they were finally far enough away from the village (which was a good seven to ten miles at minimum) and Sunako had directed her drill upwards to crate an opening to the surface, the company were practically drenched from head to toe in their own perspiration.

"Yuck!" Chōchō complained, "I feel disgusting!"

"It has been a while since my clothes have stuck to my skin this well," Inojin noted rather dispassionately.

Ōkami merely raised an eyebrow. "I'm not even going to ask what that meant dude!" He then spoke to the others, "Is there any more water left?"

Yamato became alert and he pulled a canteen out. He had gotten into a habit of keeping one handy in case he was on an extended mission, and when Sunako had told them all about her plan to escape the village by going underground, he snuck over to an abandoned outdoor tap to fill it to the brim. While they traveled through the tunnel the heat had forced the lot of them to drink most of it.

"I've got just a little bit left," Yamato confirmed. "I'd say its enough for maybe one more person."

Shinachiku looked to Hanami, who looked so exhausted, sticky, sweaty, miserable. The others had offered her a drink while they were traveling but she always refused to let the others keep themselves hydrated. As a result, she now, more than anyone else, looked like she could pass out at any minute.

"Captain Yamato," Shinachiku said, "with all due respect, I think we should let Hanami have the last of the water."

"N-No oniichan, I'll be alright. Let the others—"

"Hanami," Sarada interrupted, "your brother's right. You're completely dehydrated and you _need_ some water."

"They're right," Kakashi stated firmly. "Hanami, have a drink."

Since there was no arguing with Kakashi when he was dead serious about something, the pink-haired girl let go of her own selflessness and gave in. "Hai Kakashi-sensei."

Yamato handed the canteen to the children who then passed it along until it came into Shinachiku's hands. He handed it to his sister who swallowed the last of the water really fast; clearly she was far more thirsty than she was willing to admit. When she had emptied the last of the water, they passed the canteen back to Yamato again.

"We'll have to stop by a nearby village to refill it again," he said. "Until then it looks like we've got a long walk ahead of us."

"There's a small settlement a few miles from here," Sunako said as she pointed in the correct direction. "We'll be able to get some rest and clean off our excess perspiration while we strategize there."

Ōkami merely scratched in head, "_Excess perspiration_?"

Shikadai rolled her eyes at the dog lover's cluelessness. "She means your sweat."

"Oh..." The pups Akimichi and Akamoro whimpered at him in response.

Near the back of the group, Konohamaru had the unenviable task of having to carry poor Burandon's unconscious body on his back all the way through the tunnel and now, apparently, it was going to be through the desert as well. As much as he didn't want to demean the boy, the young Jōnin needed a moment to get the weight off of his back. So, with great ease, he lowered the boy onto the hot, soft sand as he stood up straight and stretched out his back.

"Poor Burandon..." Tsuki said in quiet worry.

"Sensei," Shinachiku said to his teacher, "is he going to be alright?"

"He'll be fine Shina, he just needs some rest. That blow from that Taka assassin was a bit too much for him."

"Who was that masked man anyway?" Bagu questioned.

"I'm not sure," Guy answered, who had to be pushed in his wheelchair by Kurenai the whole way down the tunnel, much to his humility and his guilt. "But something about the way he fought Lee and Tenten seemed awfully familiar."

Kurenai agreed, "Yes, the way he fought was quite similar to the way Hinata does."

"I know who he was." The entire company paused to listen to Kakashi speak. "I was the only one of us who managed to get a look at the stranger's face before we escaped from the house." He paused before he turned to the others. "It was Neji Hyūga."

A wave of utter shock rippled through everyone. It could not be! It was impossible! There was no way!

"U-Uncle Neji?" Tsuki questioned in horror.

"T-That can't be..." Ōkami stated in disbelief. "Our mom told us he died years ago!"

"He did," Kakashi confirmed, "but evidently Taka has found a way to bring him back, as a slave to their whim no less. This is just like what they had done to Minato-sensei, Lady Kushina and Master Jiraiya."

The entire group looked very sad at this realization of truth, but in particular Shinachiku and Hanami were depressed at what had happened to their grandparents and Tsunade was depressed over what happened to her old friend.

"S-Shina? Is what daddy said really true? Are grandma and grandpa working for the bad guys?"

Shinachiku looked at his sister in pity. He really didn't know how she was going to take this. He stole a glance from Sarada who shared his pity.

"...Yeah sis, its true. I saw them myself back in the Whirlpool Village."

Even though she had never met these people before, that did not stop young Hanami from crying once she had learned their fate. "Whaaaaa! I want mommy and daddy to come back! I don't want grandma and grandpa with the bad guys! I just want to go home and have everything back to normal again!"

"Nice going Shina!" Sarada chastised him.

"_Me?!_ What else was I supposed to do?!"

"Try _lying_ moron!" The raven-haired Uchiha heiress brought the girl into a comforting hug as she tried to sooth her pain. "Hey, its going to be alright. Your parents are going to be fine and their going to beat up the bad guys and rescue your grandparents. Then when this is all over everything's going to go right back to normal again, you'll see."

Hanami dried her tears as she looked up at Sarada with wide eyes. "You...You really think so?"

Sarada smiled and gave her a goofy thumbs up. "I know so! _Believe it!_" Hanami promptly punched her in the arm. "Ow! What did you do that for?!"

"That's my daddy's line! Only daddy and oniichan are aloud to use it!"

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry! Jeez!"

Sarada was too busy apologizing for antagonizing the young Uzumaki girl to notice that a number of the others, particularly the other girls her age, were giggling at the scene. Kurenai, Tsunade and Shizune thought it was cute too while Konohamaru was smiling in amusement. Even Shinachiku was chuckling, thankful that someone else had ticked her off for a change.

"Hanami," Shinachiku said, "Sarada's right. We're all going to get through this together! We're going to find a way to rescue mom and dad and then we're going to stop Taka once and for all!"

"And how are we going to do that?" Bagu questioned. "All of our parents have been taken prisoner after being injected with the same serum that they used on Hanami. And the last I recall, your mother already used the antidote on her before those Taka agents showed up at the Kazekage's house."

The blonde merely replied, "Not all of it."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out three vials, one containing an orange fluid and two containing green fluid.

"What is that stuff?" Shizune questioned.

"My mom explained to me that these are the antidotes to each of the serum's that Taka is using. Kabuto made it for us, two a piece."

"_Kabuto?_" Tsunade questioned suspiciously.

"Yeah, he made two vials for each antidote, one to be used on someone right away if necessary, the other for mass production."

"Mass production?" Guy questioned.

"Yeah, so we can have enough to cure anyone else infected with the red serum and also deal with the ninja Taka gave the blue serum so our chakra techniques will be able to work on them."

Tsunade, as a master medical ninja, took a great interest in the vials of antidote the boy was carrying. Approaching the young blonde, she reached out her hand. "Shinachiku, let me see those please?"

The boy handed them over to the Sannin who studied the vials with curiosity.

"What should we do with them m'lady?" Shizune asked.

"We need to get to a laboratory somewhere so I can study this antidote and figure out how to replicate it. We're going to need as much of this stuff as we can get for the battle that lies ahead of us."

Ōkami instantly waved his hands in protest. "Whoa! What a minute! What do you mean _battle?!_"

"Exactly what she said Ōkami," Kakashi stated. "This conspiracy has to be stopped for the sake of the entire shinobi world and lets face it, that's going to require some down and dirty fighting from all of us."

The Sixth Hokage, the former Copy Ninja, and the only son of the Leaf's White Fang looked out at the children that were before him now and paused for only a moment before speaking. "I know that none of you kids signed up for a fight, and I know that your parents didn't want any of you to get involved in this. And to be perfectly honest, if us grown ups can ultimately find a way to settle this mess without getting any of you involved any more than you already have then we will. But if not..." Kakashi paused again before continuing. "...Well, I'm afraid I'm just going to have to ask you all to grow up a little faster."

The entire company became utterly silent as they took in what the wise old ninja had just asked of them. There was a long road ahead for all of them and they were all going to have to get through it together.

But first, there was the matter of finding that nearby village so they all could get some rest and hopefully come up with a plan. Shinachiku, realizing this, figured he might as well take the lead.

"Time is short, we'd better get moving towards that village if we want to get things started."

* * *

The other nine members of the Konoha 12 and their allies were locked up in another wing of the correctional facility. Nobody was happy about their current situation, understandably, but with their weapons taken away and their chakra sealed, there was precious little they could do for the time being, especially with their leader currently secluded in another part of the prison.

Still, that did not stop the ever-inquisitive Shikamaru Nara from racking all of his brain cells to come up with an escape plan. Unfortunately, however, the variables he had to consider were not the best. They had nothing to cut the bars with, no way to use their chakra to escape in any way, and the door that lead to their prison wing was undoubtedly under extremely heavy guard as Uragi would be a fool to not have an excessive spike in security to watch over thirteen extremely valuable prisoners like themselves.

Besides, with everything that had already happened on this adventure and with so much he could not account for, Shikamaru found himself recalling something that Kakashi had told him once: _There are alternatives to fighting_. Perhaps it was for the best to slow things down for the time being? To bide time. To wait and listen for the right opportunity for action to present itself and be sure that they were all prepared when that opportunity finally did arrive.

Currently, the Nara was sharing a cell with his wife and brother in laws, while across from him both of his former teammates were sharing a cell together with their own respective spouses. In a third cell, Hinata and Kiba were locked in together their old teammate Shino. Lee and Tenten were occupying a fourth cell all to themselves.

"Well this sucks," Karui stated bluntly.

"Yeah, no shit," Kiba remarked sarcastically.

Temari rolled her eyes, "Don't mind her, she's just ticked because this is the second time she and I have found ourselves locked up in this prison in one day."

Some of the other's eyes widened when they'd heard that. Ino was the one who broke the silence, "So how did all of you figure out to escape here the last time?"

Karui merely huffed, "We didn't escape the last time. We were rescued by Temari's niece and got out of here with her magic gem thingy. Konohamaru got that going by sneaking in a cell phone into prison with him, but check your pockets, these guards locking us up now weren't that stupid."

Some of the others frowned.

"Well, so much for a possible escape attempt," Sai remarked.

"Shikamaru," Chōji said to get his friend's attention, "what's your plan for getting us out of here?"

"I don't have one."

"What?! Since when do _you_ not have plan?"

Shikamaru sighed out loud, "It's not that I'm out of ideas, it's just that there are too many variables left unaccounted for. We have no weapons to cut the bars, no access to any of our chakra, we are in one of the most secure wings of the prison under undoubtedly high security, and we don't even know where Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura or Karin are."

"Is that really a priority right now?" Kankurō questioned.

Behind his visor, Shino narrowed his eyes at the Sand Sibling, "What do you mean by that?"

"I just mean that maybe we should be more focused on getting ourselves out and worry around Naruto and the others later. Whatever escape attempt we come up with may not allow us enough time to help them anyway—"

"I can't believe you could say that Kankurō!" Gaara shouted in fury. "Have you forgotten the day the Akatsuki abducted me from our home?! Who was it that saved your live for Sasori's poison?!"

The puppet master frowned in shame, "Sakura."

"And who was it that arrived in our hour of need and put everything on the line to bring me home again?!"

"Naruto did."

"Exactly! Naruto is our friend and I'll be damned if we are going anywhere without him or his wife!"

"What about Sasuke and his wife?" Temari questioned.

The Kazekage paused momentarily, "...Yes, them too."

"I agree with our loyal ally Gaara," Lee proclaimed. "The Springtime of Youth lives in all of us, but most especially in Naruto! We cannot attempt to leave here for anything without our leader and his family at our side!"

Kiba chuckled, "Heh! And to think, there was once a time where the idea of Naruto leading us in anything was utterly ridiculous!"

"Shut up Kiba!"

The conversation stopped at the realization of who's outburst that was...Hinata. Kiba looked stunned at his wife, who had been sitting in their cell too distressed to say a word. The Hyūga clan princess had her mind on a number of things of course, not the least of which including Naruto and Sakura's current fate. But more than anything else, she could not help the utter heartbreak she felt upon seeing _him_.

"Hinata..." Kiba found himself at a loss for words. He could not begin to imagine what his wife had to be feeling right now, but he had to be there for her now, it was his duty as her husband.

So, he kneeled down and wrapped her into a hug from behind. Turning her head to face him, that gesture of kindness was enough to fully break her. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and cried into his shoulder.

"Neji...How...How could it possibly be Neji?!"

"I don't know Hinata," Kiba answered, "I just don't know."

"The Chakra Gems."

The others turned to Shikamaru as he put two and two together and started explaining his latest theory. "It could be that Taka have used one or more of the Chakra Gems to bring Neji back to live and make his their puppet, just like they did to Master Jiraiya and Naruto's parents."

"Son of a..." Tenten stopped herself before she swore. "How many of these things are there?"

"According to Sasuke, at least seven," Shikamaru clarified.

"And now Taka has two more," Gaara said in regret, referring both to the gem formally in his village's possession, and also to the one in Naruto's son found in the Whirlpool Village.

"Not necessarily." Gaara and the others turned to the Nara once again. "Taka no doubt had taken the green gem, but the one Shinachiku found may still be out of their reach."

"How do you know Shikamaru?" Temari asked her husband in fascination. "Who did Naruto and Sakura give it to anyway?"

The pineapple-haired adviser to the Seventh Hokage closed his eyes before answering. "Someone who, if we're lucky, is keeping it safe and out of sight of a certain blonde haired boy."

* * *

As the children were walking endlessly towards the village, Sarada kept feeling her hand in her pocket. Her fingers would occasionally caress a small, beautiful, powerful object that her aunt and uncle had entrusted to her to keep out of Taka's hands, or else the fate of the world could fall into chaos.

But more important to her, she needed to keep it away from _him_. She could never let him know she had it with her. If she did, then it would put everyone in the group in possible danger, worst of all himself.

'No, no it must stay with me. I'll guard it. I'll keep it safe. Keep it with me...with me...'

"Hey Sarada? Are you alright?"

The sound of her old friend's voice snapped Sarada out of her line of thought with a start. "Huh? W-What did you say?"

Shinachiku asked her again innocently. "I was just asking you is you were feeling okay? You looked like you were zoning out for a minute there."

"No! No I'm fine Shina! Don't worry about me."

The blonde looked at her for about three seconds before smiling and nodding his head.

"Hey you two! No time for dillydallying!" Konohamaru shouted from in front of them, the unconscious Burandon still on his back. "We're only a few more miles from the village and from there we can get some rest and come up with a plan."

Both of the Genin snapped to attention at the Sarutobi's command. "HAI SENSEI!"

As Shinachiku continued walking with Hanami beside him, Sarada followed them from behind. Her hand fell back into her pocket, feeling the crimson gem she kept hidden within...Until she quickly pulled her hand back in confusion of her own actions.

'What on Earth is wrong with me...?'

* * *

"Where is the Chakra Gem?"

Naruto glared at Uragi in anger. "Drop dead traitor!"

Uragi smirked, "Have it your way. But you should realize that Taka always gets what it wants eventually. No resource is too small when you set out to save the world from itself."

Karin raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

The interim-Hokage only acknowledged the red-haired woman briefly before he began speaking to everybody. "I've lived in this world a long time my friends—"

"Don't call us that!" Naruto growled aloud.

A brief glance in his direction was the only response that Uragi gave Naruto before continuing. "As I was saying, I've lived in this world a long time, and unlike you Uzumaki, _I've_ seen the world for what it really is."

"What are your talking about?"

"I'm saying that you've made a vow to end this world's cycle of hatred and yet you haven't even a fraction of understanding of what suffering really is!"

The four shinobi scowled as they remained quiet while the treacherous Taka leader continued to speak. "You call me as a traitor, but I'm no more of a traitor than the entire world is to itself. The Akatsuki betrayed their nations and humanity itself solely to gain power, Obito Uchiha betrayed your father and killed him and your mother, Itachi Uchiha betrayed his entire clan by murdering them, your _entire_ village betrayed you since you were a child! And worst of all, _YOU_, Uzumaki, betrayed all of mankind by failing the promise you made! How can you claim you are actually ending this world's cycle of hatred when we still live in a world where a man raised to kill for a living can choose to put that life behind him and raise an honest family, only to commit suicide because someone who claimed to have once been their friend chooses to rape and murder his family right in front of him?!"

Naruto was dumbstruck; even with all the work he had done, it was still hard to believe that in the world they lived in moments of evil such as that could still be found. Uragi did have one point, knowing this did make Naruto feel like he was failing his mission.

However, this the difference between the younger Naruto and the one that existed now, as he had grown wise enough to come up with a response to Uragi's accusations. "You may be right Uragi, maybe I haven't been doing enough? Maybe there is still a cycle of hatred in this world that lays buried just underneath to surface, even during our era of peace? But the tragic thing about the world is that the brighter the picture, the darker the negative. Even the brightest light must have some trace of darkness to counter it somehow, however big or small that is. How can anyone claim to truly be good unless there is just a fraction of bad in it as well? Nobody can erase all the hatred in this world, but the goal is to keep trying, to strive towards that goal and do everything in our power to try to make it real. That's how we grow and improve as human beings."

Sakura, Saskue and Karin smiled at Naruto's little speech. It was a clear sign of how much their friend had grown up; he had by no means turned his back on Master Jiraya's dream, but he was mature enough to realize that the world can never truly function without some amount of darkness to balance out the light, and yet to the light must always overcome the darkness for the world the remain beautiful. For it is the struggle against the darkness that defines us as good.

Uragi was taken in by Naruto's words...for about ten seconds. "Ha! How the mighty have fallen! The Great Naruto Uzumaki has fallen so far that now he has to resort to making childish excuses to justify his failure!"

"How dare you!" Sakura practically screamed. "What possible justification can you have to put yourself on Naruto's level! _You're_ the ones who are failing to end the cycle of hatred! You're the ones making everything worse! But Naruto, he's the most loyal, committed man I've ever know and he would never—"

"Be silent you mewling quim!"

There was a incredulous silence; absolutely no one, not even Sasuke, could believe that Uragi would lash out and call her something _that_ fowl and despicable!

"Take that back you son of a bitch!"

Uragi pointed at Naruto with fury in his voice. "SILENCE! You have no authority anymore Uzumaki! You forfeited any right to command me long ago! You call yourself the Child of Prophecy, the one who would end the cycle of hatred! And yet you remained totally blind to the suffering in the world around you! The real humanity that lives down on the streets, away from your precious, lavish mansion and your handsome family and loving fan base which you don't deserve!"

Now Sasuke was getting angry, "Watch your mouth you bastard!"

"No! _You_ watch your mouth Uchiha! You're just as bad as the blonde idiot here! You not only betrayed your village but then you betrayed _yourself!_ You promised that you would free this world of the cycle of hatred by reinventing it and ridding it of the incompetence of the kages. But no, all it took was loosing your arm to this fool and your revolution was thrown away! We just weren't going to allow the right idea to go to waste!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth before firing back. "I was young! I was a fool! A total fool! One deluded by rage and vengeance! By a cycle I could not escape! Naruto's the man who saved me from turning into the monster that _you_ are!"

"_You're_ a monster for turning your back on what needed to be done! We took your team's name to symbolize that, what your Taka should have been! And now what it _is_ under our leadership!"

"_Our_ leadership?" Karin questioned.

"Of course. You don't seriously think that _I'm_ the man in charge of this whole organization do you? No, only the Konoha branch of it. There are Taka leaders in every village and beyond. You can fight back against us all you want, but we'll always come back, like a mighty bird taking flight on the wings of change. Mark my words that after the Kage Summit is over, this world will truly be the better place that Uzumaki utterly failed to make it."

Sakura was the one to speak back to him, with two words only: "You're insane."

Uragi clenched his fist, "You know, I was going to press you harder for the gem's whereabouts, but being in your presence is making me sick to my stomach! I'll be back in a little while, until then, why don't you four just hang there?"

With that, Uragi slammed the door behind him and the four ninja were left alone in their cell block.

"Well...that was fun," Sasuke quipped in dry sarcasm.

"Sasuke," Karin said, "we've got to figure out a way out of here before Uragi does whatever the heck he plans to do at the Kage Summit!"

"Oh crap!" Naruto shouted. "I should have remembered to ask him what was going to happen at the summit and how he brought back my loved ones from the dead!"

Sasuke made the reply, "That's a real shame Naruto, because I'm certain that Uragi was anxious to tell us every detail about his evil plan."

"You really think so?"

"**Of course not, you moron!**"

"Will you two shut up!" Sakura yelled at both men. "Bickering like children isn't going to get us out of here! We need a plan!"

Naruto nodded and smiled at his wife. "She's right. We're all in this together if we're going to stop Taka. And besides, we still have our ace in the hole; they still don't have the Chakra Gem."

As he continued to hang there, Naruto finished his train of thought within his head. '...The gem is safe...just so long as those kids don't decide to try something stupid...'

* * *

Well, there you have it, another chapter in the can. I'm sure a lot of you guys are call B.S. on my explanation of why they got defeated so easily, but I had to come up with something, and with Randamu being such a random character and a skilled mercenary, it made sense to me that he would be able to to develop a gas like that.

I felt that this chapter was the time when Naruto and Randamu finally had to confront one another face-to-face and face off against each other's methodology. The speech that Naruto gives about the reality of the world might seem a bit counter intuitive to what we know in canon, but it was meant to show how much wiser and insightful about the world Naruto has become at his age, that no matter how much you work to eclipse the darkness, a little bit of it has to remain for there to be some kind of balance in this world (not to mention that is there was not _some_ kind of evil in this world then there would be no story). Its like is "Star Wars," you can have Anakin/Vader fulfill the Jedi prophecy and destroy the Sith once and for all, but that doesn't mean that the dark side of the Force no longer exists. If that were the case, there would be no expanded universe or "Episode VII: The Force Awakens" (I absolutely can't wait for it by the way!).

Some of you may have noticed Sarada feeling a bit strange from hiding to Chakra Gem from Shinachiku...I'll leave that one up in the air for now.

Now let's go over the references. There were only two to speak of this time unfortunately and both of them were lines of dialogue. Sasuke's line "Another fine mess we've fallen into, huh dobe?" was partially inspired by "Gilligan's Island" of all things. The Skipper would often berate Gilligan's foolishness by saying "Another fine mess you've gotten us into."

The other reference was when Uragi called Sakura a "mewling quim," which was a reference to "The Avengers" when Loki calls Black Widow the same thing. But the thing about that line is that it is a Victorian era slang term that is extremely offensive! Basically, it literally means "whimpering vagina," and it can also be used as an insult synonymous to "whiny bitch," 'cry-baby," or "wussy." So, to any female readers out there, especially those outside of America, I want to make it clear that I meant no offense to the female species in any way shape of form, it was merely a horrible phrase chosen to make our villain seem even more despicable than he already is.

Oh yeah, and the sarcastic mocking Sasuke does of Naruto's hope that Uragi will reveal his evil plan to Naruto was inspired by a scene in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," where Ultron makes a similar sarcastic quip to Iron Man.

That's all I've got for this time. I hope you all enjoyed it, and sorry again for the wait. Also, that you all once again for your support.

Until next time, see ya!


	35. Chapter 33--Indestructible

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Sorry for yet another delay in getting this one out, but thank you all once again for the continued support. I'll say it once again, you guys are a main reason why I keep doing this, so thank you!

In related news, in case you did not know, I have two NaruSaku-related announcements that I thought you guys might find interesting. YouTuber ForneverWorld has posted a video where he talks about Naruto-related topics, and one of which was a rumor that, supposedly, Kishimoto's wife was herself a NaruSaku fan and was disappointed (or at the very lest surprised) with his choice of how the series would end. Furthermore, a number of women on Kishimoto's own staff were of similar mindset. It would seem that Kishi might have underestimated the popularity of NaruSaku not just across the Pacific, but within his own country as well.

The second announcement I wanted to discuss is that a popular NaruSaku artist, kirabook, creator of the fansite "Ask Shinachiku," has launched her very own wiki devoted solely to the couple. As of now there is not much content on it, but she has posted a video on her YouTube channel that goes over step-by-step how to add content to the wiki. I won't type the address only because doesn't allow it, but I suggest you got check it out narusakuwiki.

One more thing, this chapter features a very strange in-joke for anime fans in the form of a sort-of homage/cameo from characters from another series...in a very strange and fanservicey way. I don't know how it will play and if it doesn't work, then I apologize for it in advance, but trust me, you'll know it when you see it.

So, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 33: Indestructible**

"Well, this is quite a busy little place."

Kurenai's comment spoke for everyone as the group finally made it out of the desert and into the village. There were streets, alleyways, clinics, a marketplace, the usual stuff you'd expect. But right now they needed to focus on finding an inn for them to sleep in.

"I don't see any residential establishments available for rent," Sunako said.

"Huh?"

Tsuki made the correction for her brother. "She means that he doesn't see any hotels with rooms for rent."

"Oh."

"Look!" Hanami pointed to an establishment called the Heaven and Earth Inn. It didn't look like any place special, but it did have a sign that clearly read 'Vacancy.'

"Do you think that they're going to have rooms for all of us?" Bagu questioned.

"They'd better," Shikadai stated, "or else all of us are going to have to camp outdoors day in and day out until we get back to Konoha."

"We'll make due with what we have," Shinachiku said. "Let's just check into our rooms so we can get to work."

Kakashi and the other adults watched as the young blonde walked ahead of them. Some of them looked concerned that the boy seemed so serious all of a sudden.

On the other hand, some of his peers were a bit put off at the boy's tone of voice. In particular, Ōkami.

"What the heck crawled up his butt?!"

"He's just focused on rescuing his parents that's all," Shikadai reasoned.

"Yeah, well he'd better watch the attitude around us or I'll—"

"Or you'll what?" The children turned their heads to see young Hanami staring the older boy down. "What are you planning to do to my big brother?! Whatever it is it's not going to work! Shina-chan can kick your butt anytime he wants!"

The young dog shinobi rolled his eyes at the little girl's praise for her elder sibling, figuring he might a well just let it go. "Fine, whatever!"

As the children filed into the inn, the adults kept a close eye on them as they were now their responsibility. It was an odd feeling for a lot of them, since it had been a long time since they had been in charge of Genin...Not since their parents as a matter of fact.

In particular, Konohamaru, still with the unconscious Burandon Lee on his back, was concerned for the well-being of his student. Shinachiku could be pretty focused on his training, but he was rarely as determined as he appeared right now...

* * *

"Again!"

It was many months earlier, soon after Shinachiku and his class graduated from the Academy. Konohamaru had the boy in a sparing match, and so far it appeared that the Sarutobi had his pupil on the ropes.

"No!" Konohamaru said as he caught the boy's fists and blocked his left knee. "Don't throw your moves recklessly! Learn to predict your opponent's movements! Use your brain kid!"

It was then that the Jōnin noticed the boy had a sly smirk. He suddenly took the leg that his sensei was not blocking and swung it at his master's feet. The force and the momentum were enough to knock the young adult to the ground. Looking up, he could see the boy standing over him triumphantly.

"How's _that_ for using my brain sensei?"

"Not bad...if you'd been fighting the right person."

Konohamaru instantly vanished in the puff of smoke; he had merely been a shadow clone this whole time.

"Hey! That no fair sensei!"

In that instant, the ground beneath the boy's feet broke open and a fist met his jaw in a brutal uppercut. Shinachiku fell to the ground looking directly upwards, their roles reverse as now his teacher was smiling down at him.

"And who ever said anything about this being fair? Do you expect an opponent to always play fair with you? You need to be stealthy, catch your opponent off guard with strategy. Deception of among a shinobi's most invaluable weapons."

The Sarutobi gasped as he felt the sharp tip of a kunai pointed directly at his neck. "I know."

The boy at his feet then puffed into smoke himself, meaning that the real Shinachiku was standing right behind him.

"Well played kid...but I hope you have more than a kunai at my neck to defeat me."

The Jōnin turned rapidly in the direction of the boy behind him, knocking the kunai away from his neck and landing a punch right in the boy's stomach. The boy responded not in agony from the pain...but by puffing into yet another puff of smoke.

Konohamaru had little time to react before the ground beneath him erupted again and a mighty cry was heard throughout the forest.

"RASENGAN!"

The real Shinachiku Uzumaki burst out of the ground not with another uppercut but with his grandfather's signature technique. It was still not fully mastered and the chakra was not fully contained, but the force was still enough for the boy to do damage to his teacher, knocking him back into a sturdy tree.

"Ow!" Konohamaru yelled when his back hit the tree. He took a moment to get situated again before addressing his student. "Jeez kid! You really do think ahead!"

"I've learned from the best sensei!"

The ninja with the blue scarf scratched the back of his head. "Aw shucks..."

"And by the best I mean my dad!" Konohamaru promptly face faulted as a vein appeared on his forehead. "Just kidding sensei! I couldn't resist seeing the look on your face!

Grumbling, Konohamaru got back up off the tree and stood before his student again. "I'm impressed; you catch on pretty quick. But it still looks like you need more practice getting your Rasengan down."

Now it was the boy's turn the frown. "Yeah, I know. I was trying to see if I could do it without using a shadow clone like you and dad can."

"Hay! Don't you go rushing things and getting overconfident! Remember it took your dad and me a long time before we were able to do it on our own. The Rasengan isn't a jutsu that one can master overnight; if it were I guarantee you that _way_ more shinobi would be using it that they are now."

"Right...So how long do you think it will be before I can upgrade it to the Rasenshuri—?"

"Boy! Weren't you listening to a word I just said! First focus on mastering the jutsu, _then_, _maybe_, _one day_ you and I can focus on finding you chakra nature and customizing your Rasengan for you."

"...Hai sensei."

"Hey don't sweat it kid," the Jōnin continued, "you're already making excellent progress and there's no reason to rush things like your father did. Now then, how about I show you a little trick you can use against larger, more experienced opponents to help level the playing field. In fact, after my little lecture, you might even be able to convince your Aunt Hinata to give you some further pointers."

"Huh?"

* * *

Konohamaru smiled at the memory. Shinachiku may complain about things from time to time, but he was a bright kid who would was always committed to his studies, but he was also a quick learner (like his father) and he knew how to lighten up and keep a positive attitude. And that was why, as the boy's teacher, it bothered him to see his pupil behaving so cold and utterly determined now.

"He'll be fine Konohamaru, he's just going through a hard time right now."

The Sarutobi clan member turned his head to the source of the voice. "I know that Yamato, I'm just...I don't know, _disheartened_ about it is all."

The senior Anbu Captain placed a hand on the young Jōnin's shoulder. "Well, then it's a good thing that his sensei is right here to make sure he stays in line."

As the elder shinobi entered the inn, Shizune looked back and noticed that one of the children had not gone in ahead of them like the rest of her peers. "Sarada, is everything alright sweetie?"

The raven-haired girl appeared distracted, like her mind was lost in some train of thought that was entirely unknown to anyone else save for her. She was also keeping her hand in her pocket, almost like she was playing with something hidden within...

"Sarada!"

"W-What?! What?!"

"I was just asking you if everything was alright?"

"Y-Yeah! I'm fine Shizune-san, really."

"Are you sure, you seemed distracted about something."

"I was just...thinking about my mom and dad. And about Uncle Naruto and Aunt Sakura too."

The middle aged women smiled at the girl in pity. "They're going to be alright. We're all going to get through this together."

"...Arigato Shizune-san."

Sarada followed Shizune's lead and went in with the others. However, for a brief moment she found herself reaching back into her pocket...before she felt something really awkward was going on and yanked it back out again.

Inside the inn, the other children and the adults were all gathered around the reception desk. The innkeeper was not there, so Kakashi kept ringing the bell over and over to get the attention of whoever worked here.

"Alright! Alright! Hold your horses! We're coming!"

In the room, apparently coming as quick as they could, came a boy with brown hair and two girls, one with short blue hair and other with long red hair, all of them about nineteen years old. The boy was readjusting his pants and quickly zipping up his fly, while the girls was both straightening out their shirts and redoing a few of their top buttons. To all of the adults (and a number of aware and _very_ creeped out children), it was obvious what the three teenagers must have been up to.

"Uh, hello folks!" the young man said, "welcome to the inn. My name is Shinji Murasaki and these are my, umm, _friends_ Rei Furinji and Asuka Samehada. How may we be of service?"

Kakashi spoke for the lot of them. "Hi, we'd like to rent a couple of rooms for a while. Do you have enough vacancies for..." He looked behind him to count how many were in their party before turning back to Shinji. "...Do you have enough rooms to house eighteen guests?"

The boy turned to his two 'friends' before letting out a whistle. "Whew! That's quite a crowd you have here! Are all of you here on business or pleasure?"

"Business."

"Alright, let me take a look at the manifest for a moment please?"

As Shinji started going through the book to see how many rooms they still had open, Kurenai glared at the unassuming young women standing next to him with suspicion. "So, do all three of you work here?"

"Oh no," Rei answered. "Only Shinji does. His guardian is the one who owns this inn and she's been friends with Shinji's mother for years and agreed to take him in when his mother died and his father went to prison.

Sunako was curious, "Went to prison?"

Shinji raised his head up from the book to deliver a brief scowl. "He was a douche bag; it's a long story."

Shikadai rolled his eyes at the young man, "_Riiiiight_. So what are the two of you doing here then?"

"Oh, we're just good friends with Shinji and we both decided to stop and keep him company."

Ōkami leaned in and whispered into Inojin's ear, "I get the feeling that the three of them are _really_ good friends."

Inojin wasn't catching onto the Inuzuka-Hyūga boy's implication. "Indeed, they do seem well acquainted. Perhaps they are here to work on their school studies in addition to providing companionship for the young man?"

Ōkami's face faulted, "...Dude, that's _not_ the kind of companionship I meant."

"So where is your guardian young man?" Kurenai asked. "Did she have an errand to run while you covered for her?"

Shinji merely pointed behind him, "Oh no, Misato is still in the back."

...There was suddenly an awkward silence that fell over most of the people present, save for a few of the kids like Hanami who could not process what was just implied.

"Wait a minute!" Sarada exclaimed. "You mean that your guardian is in the back office where you three just came from...And the three of you each came out with you're clothes...Then wouldn't that imply—?"

"Aw!" Shinji shouted as he finished looking through the book. "It looks like you folks might be in luck. It looks like we have five rooms left available and each of our rooms can comfortably house up to four or five people each."

Kakashi figured that this was the best they were going to have to work with, so he figured he might as well agree to the proposition. "Alright, we'll take them."

"Alright sir," Shinji said as he got his pen ready. "Now I do not require the names of every member of your party, but I will need to write down the identity of the primary party member."

Kakashi, knowing full well how essential anonymity was going to be for their pending resistance against Taka, quickly came up with an alias for himself on the spot. "Ishka Takahé."

"Very well Master Takahé, you and your party are all checked in." The young man handed him five keys to the rooms they would be occupying. "Here are your keys sir, you will find your rooms right up those stairs. Complimentary breakfast are available every morning and you need only call for help if you need any service."

Some members of the group got uncomfortable looks on their faces at the invitation to call them up for help, not looking forward to having to break up whatever weird activities the three (possibly four) of them were up to in the back office.

Kakashi faked one of his signature eye smiles as he took the keys. "We'll be fine, thank you young man."

Taking the other to the side, for enough where they three teen would not hear them talking, he huddled them all around to negotiate what the living arrangements were going to be for the time being. "Alright, we only have five rooms so all of us are going to have to group up for the night. So, who's willing to sleep with whom?"

"Sleep _with_?" Shizune quipped at her former boss's choice of words.

Kakashi sweat dropped, "You know what I mean."

"Listen," Tsunade spoke, "I think its for the best that Shizune and I share a room with Hanami, that way the two of us can more closely monitor her to see how well that antidote is working on her. Plus, we'll both be able to study the samples of antidote we have in peace."

The others all nodded their heads in agreement. But then Sarada spoke up, "I'll stay with you too, just to help keep her safe."

Sarada traded a silent look with Shinachiku. No words were exchanged, but the smile he was giving her (which was unconsciously causing her to blush) let her know that he was grateful to her for volunteering to help watch out for his little sister.

"I think it's pretty obvious that the girls are going to want to bunk up away from the boys," Kurenai noted. "So Tsuki, Chōchō, Sunako, you three can share my room."

"Konohamaru," Guy spoke to the young Jōnin, "you can take a break and leave Burandon with me! He and Bagu can share my room!"

The young insect ninja rolled his eyes beneath his glasses, not looking forward to having to share a room with two overly enthusiastic ninjas like Guy and Burandon. 'God help me...'

"I suppose I can take Inojin, Shikadai and Ōkami," Yamato volunteered.

"I'm Shinachiku's teacher," Konohamaru stated, "so he can just share my room."

Kakashi nodded, "I think I'll bunk with you gentlemen as well, if you don't mind."

Konohamaru nodded back, "Not at all Kaka—I mean, _Ishka_."

The former Copy Ninja turned to the young blonde, "Will this be alright with you?"

Shinachiku was rather cold with his answer. "It's fine. Lets just get settled in already."

The boy headed upstairs without another word. The two men traded concerned glances, while Sarada and Hanami just looked at the boy with pity.

'Shina...'

'Oniichan...'

The company promptly headed upstairs and split off into their separate rooms. When they had closed all the doors behind them, the three teens behind the counter let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Good riddens!" Asuka exclaimed loudly. "I thought they'd _never_ leave!"

"Asuka, be polite! They're our guests now." Rei defended.

"Girls! Please!" Shinji tried to calm them down. "What matters is that they're all checked in and our vacancy's full."

Rei smiled, "Lady Misato will be pleased to hear that."

"In speaking of whom," Asuka said, "She's probably still waiting on us."

Shinji instantly caught onto his 'good friends' suggestion and responded with an equally devilish smirk. "Well then, far be it for us to keep her waiting. Ladies?"

The two girls giggled before they followed the boy into the back where a fully-grown, attractive woman with a festive personality was indeed awaiting their return...

* * *

"So what now?" Shinachiku wasted no time asking. "We need to come up with a plan."

"We are coming up with a plan," Kakashi said. "And that plan is fairly simple."

"Oh," the young blonde said surprised. "So...you going to fill me in on the plan?"

"You kids are going to be training, and when I say training I mean training your asses off! Whether you spend it refining your current abilities or cramming months of experience into creating some brand new jutsu, that's up to you. But the point is that we have virtually no time until Uragi holds the Kage Summit and we need to seriously improvise here."

"_Improvising_ and _winging things_ isn't going to defeat Taka!"

"You're right," Kakashi replied, taking note of the boy's attitude. "That's why our top priority is going to be infiltrating the village and setting your parent's free."

"That's it!"

"Shinachiku," Kakashi said, "you kids have youth, we have experience, but only those who are right now are being held prisoner have both."

"But there's got to be more I can do!"

"You've already done plenty!" Konohamaru insisted. "Shina, you've kept the great wean out of the enemy's hands. you helped get your sister and al of your friends to safety. You've played more than your part in this story. But—"

"But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still just a Genin. Just a _kid_, right?"

The two men merely looked at the boy without showing any expression. They're didn't need to either way, it was obvious to anyone.

At this, the young boy let out a deep sigh. "You guys are just like my dad. You think this is too big for us. That we can't help out. That we can't do something! Anything!"

"You will be doing something! You'll be helping to get your parents out of prison and then—"

"And then the grown ups will get all the glory and all of us will still be stuck in your shadow. Is that right?"

Konohamaru raised an eyebrow, "Hey! Where is all this coming from?"

The boy let out a deep sigh, "Do you know why I was so excited to go with Uncle Sasuke to find the chakra gem? It was because it was finally my chance to make a name for myself! To prove that _I_ could do something great! To prove that there is more to me than just being the son of Naruto! To show people that I'm my own person! To prove that I _matter!_"

Kakashi stared at the boy coldly. "Who was it you were trying to prove it too? The world...or yourself?"

The boy said nothing, but it mattered not. His silence spoke volumes.

"Shinachiku," Konohamaru started, "I know better than most how it feels to be regarded by other more for who your family is than for who you yourself are. I saw that in you when I got your father's permission to train you. But it was your dad who showed me the way, who inspired me to work hard to become my own man." He got up and walked over to the boy, kneeled down, and put his hands on his shoulders. "And now I'm here to tell you that's the path you'll have to face as well."

"But sensei—"

"Listen to me Shina," he said as politely as possible. "What your father said when you let the village with Sasuke was true. This is indeed where your story begins, but its not going to be where it ends. You may still have a part left to play before this is all over, and yes, you and all your friends may find yourself in a few fights that you may or may not be ready for. But you know what, for as many times as you've read your father's story in his book, I think there's one key point that you're allowing yourself to forget."

"What's that sensei?"

The Sarutobi smiled, then took off his signature blue scarf and wrapped it around his pupil's neck. "That no matter what happens, you don't have to do any of it alone."

The boys was awestruck by his master's words. He was right; he was being a brat. He was treating everything as if it were all his responsibility alone. As if his parent's rescue, Hanami's safety, stopping Taka, all of it was _his_ destiny alone.

But his was forgetting, they were a team now. All of them. And if Taka was going o be stopped, then it was going to be up to all of them to save the day.

"G-Gomen sensei. I was being foolish."

"No you weren't, you were just a bit misguided. But I suppose that's why fate seems to have decided to place us back together like this, so I can continue to guide you through all this." He place a hand back on the boy's shoulder. "I'm here for you son."

Something happened then. All the anger, all the determination, all the seriousness, all of it got washed away. Instead, it was replaced with tears. Not tears of sorrow nor tears of regret, just tears of release. It was release that he needed, and now that he had it, it was like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

'Sensei's right, we are going to stop Taka..._we_ are."

Not able to resist, the boy ran into his teacher's arms. Konohamaru did not hesitate to return the embrace. 'Let it out son, just let it out."

Niether of them knew how long they stayed like that, but when they finally broke apart, Shinachiku dried his tears and smiled. it was a pure smile, one that made it clear that he was back to his confident self.

"Arigato Konohamaru-sensei."

"Anytime kid."

"Ahem!" The two of them turned in the direction of Kakashi. "As touching as it is seeing you two bonding, I do have a suggestion for you Shinachiku in case you're interested."

The boy looked intrigued. "What are you talking about Kakashi-sensei?"

"Shinachiku, do you remember how in your father's book he wrote about specialized training I had him undergo to get strong enough to defeat your uncle? Remember, about the time that Konohamaru's uncle died?"

The blonde looked totally lost for a few second, until what the former kage was suggesting suddenly became clear. "Wait! Kakashi-sensei, are you saying—?"

"Yes. Shinachiku, how would you like it if you sensei and I help you to find your exact chakra nature so we can help you finish your Rasengan training?"

"Wow! Really! That'd be awesome! My very own Rasenshuriken!"

"No, not necessarily. Depending on your chakra nature, this may either be your chance to begin learning your father's jutsu, or to create something entirely your own. Of course, its your choice."

"Yes! Of course yes!"

The former copy Ninja smiled beneath his mask. "I thought that's what you'd say."

"Anyway," Konohamaru said, "the first thing we need to do before we start discussing any kind of training is to figure out how much time we have until the Kage Summit."

"I can find that out for you."

With that, Shinachiku got out his backpack and unzipped it. Going through the stuff he packed when he first left on his mission with Sasuke, he pulled out his laptop computer.

"Just give me a minute to log on and I'll tell you what I've got."

The two adults left the Genin to his own devices, while the two of them got to talking.

"Kakashi, listen, are you sure that this is the best course of action for him?"

"Whatever information he gets on his computer, we both know that our time before the Summit is limited, so one-on-one time with the two of us is the best option. The only other idea I have right now would be to take him the Myōboku, and we just don't have the kind of time it will take for him to learn how to learn sage arts. At his age he'll be lucky if he's advanced enough to handle _this_ training, yet alone what the Great Toads would ask of him. Besides—"

"At least by training this way with us he'll still be alive to make it the fight that's coming, but if he fails over there he could end up a statue."

"Precisely."

"Hey, I've got something!"

The two men broke off their conversation to huddle over the boy's laptop.

"What did you find?" Konohamaru asked.

"Well sensei, according to this latest news bulletin, it looks like the next Kage Summit is going to be held back home in Konohagakure."

"Makes sense," Kakashi reasoned. "That is the village Uragi is in control of now. Calling the other kage's there would give him a clear advantage and the double agents under his command would outnumber any kind of security entourage the other kages cold bring with them."

"Does it say a date?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yeah, it says that the Summit is going to be held in about...two weeks."

The two adults looked to one another and shared the same thought. 'That's not good. Taking into account the time needed for training and the travel time needed to get all the way back to the Leaf Village...'

"Alright, so be it," Kakashi stated. "I'm going to go share what we've learned with the others. Shinachiku, I suggest you take advantage of today and get yourself some rest, because tomorrow we start moving out and we begin your training at the same time."

"HAI SENSEI!"

* * *

"Alright Hanami, I want you to please try something for me alright?"

"Hai Shizune-san."

The little girl was inside the room she shared with Tsunade, Shizune and Sarada. Tsunade was currently sitting at a small table using the resources she had to study the samples of antidote. Sarada, meanwhile, was merely sitting on one of the beds, with one of her hands resting inside her pocket.

"Okay," Shizune continued, "sweetie, I want you to try using your daddy's shadow clone jutsu. Your daddy did teach you how to do that, right?"

"Oh yeah!" Hanami said a little too excitedly. She quickly got into the pose with the correct hand sign.

This was it. The moment of truth. Whether or not she would be able to putt his off or not would prove once and for all whether or not the antidote was indeed real or poor Hanami was now far worse off than they were before...One way or another, it all boiled down to this...

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

A large puff of smoke appeared in their room. From it four identical clones of Hanami appeared beside her.

"It worked!" Shizune cried out excitedly as she turned to her old master. "It worked! M'lady! Did you see! The serum worked! Hanami's cured!"

"Yes, I can see that," the Sannin said. 'this is indeed terrific news. "How are you feeling now Hanami?"

"I feel great! Back to normal now. Mommy's medicine really helped out a lot!"

The slug queen smiled at the adorable little girl's energy. 'That's such a relief. I suppose we all own Kabuto a big thank you the next time we run into him.'

Shizune then took notice of Sarada sitting on the bed; it looked as though she was hardly paying attention to what had been happening. "Sarada, are you alright?"

"W-What? You say something?"

"Weren't you watching? Hanami's cured now!"

"Oh...Oh yes! Yes! That's great news. Shinachiku is going to so happy when he finds out."

"Are you sure you're okay Sarada?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Shizune, don't worry about me."

The middle aged woman noted where they girl currently had her hand. "Say, you sure have been keeping your hand in your pocket an awful lot lately."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Is there something in you pocket you're holding onto?"

Tsunade seemed to be catching on quicker than Shizune should have. The Sannin narrowed her eyes at the young Uchiha girl, studying her next reaction.

"Its nothing Shizune, really."

"But then why are you—?"

**"JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, ALL RIGHT!"**

The room suddenly fell silent, utterly silent. It was so silent that you could literally hear cricket had any been in the room or hear a pin if one had been dropped. No one could say a word, no one could believe the sudden, random, needless outburst that Sarada had just unleashed...including Sarada herself.

Shizune seemed caught off guard, Tsunade was very upset, already coming to her own conclusions based on the story she had been caught up on back in Suna, and Hanami (all five of her) looks scared and about ready to cry.

Sarada herself instantly ripped her hand out of her pocket and threw it over her own mouth in horror. What on Earth had come over her? Why was she acting so strangely all of a sudden? And why did it all start after...?

'Oh God! This all started after...after Aunt Sakura entrusted me to watch over the chakra gem...'

Before she or anyone else in the room could say anything else, there was a knock on the door and in stepped Kakashi. He was about to quickly begin talking, but eh instant he stepped into the room he felt bombarded with the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"Oh, umm, excuse me ladies. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Kakashi's voice snapped the women back to reality. Shizune was the one to speak. "Oh, Kakashi, no, no we're all fine here. In fact, we have good news, it seems that the antidote that we used on Hanami worked. She just now succeeded in making four shadow clones."

"Really? Well that _is_ good news. Congratulations young lady; I guess you really are your father's daughter after all. I'll go tell your brother for you; I'm sure he's going to be really happy for you—"

"Kakashi!" Tsunade called out to get her successor's attention. "What is it you wanted to discuss?"

"Oh right, I came by to let you know that Konohamaru, Shinachiku and I discussed a few things that I needed to fill you all in on."

"Before you say anything, can I speak to you in private for a moment?"

The silver haired shinobi curiously went over to the buxom blonde sannin and listen as she whispered something into his ear. He took in all in is serious contemplation, making a couple of very quick glances in the direction of the young Uchiha heiress still in the room.

"What do you think?" Tsunade asked.

Kakashi thought about it. "Hmm...I think that she definitely needs to be watched more closely...In fact, if its what you think it is, then _both_ of them do...Tell you what, Konohamaru and I are already training Shinachiku for what's coming, why don't you give her to us as well, that way we can keep an eye on them both?"

"You sure to two of you can handle her?"

"Sure; an Uchiha and an Uzumaki, in a weird way it will be just like old times."

"Hmm...fine then. But Kakashi, listen...if she looses control, or if he should ever figure out that she's the one that carrying the—"

"Yes, yes m'lady, I realize what might happen."

Sarada was only vaguely paying attention; for the moment her mind was much more preoccupied with the glowing gem that she currently kept in her possession. She thought about what it had done to Shinachiku back the woods outside the Land of Whirlpools...It was terrifying her! But she could not just get rid of this thing or else Shinachiku might learn where it was, which scared her even more.

'God, what do I do?'

* * *

The next day, the company all checked out of the inn, after meeting with the innkeeper herself, Lady Misato. She was a very attractive woman in the late twenties to her very early thirties with long, flowing violet hair.

Indeed, nobody would have had any inherent vices with the woman...had it not been for the _very_ awkward moment when she came out to greet them while finishing buttoning up and straightening out her dress and hair, following by her teenage charge Shinji coming out while tucking his disheveled shirt into his pants.

...Yeah...nobody said anything since most likely it was something totally different and completely innocent than what it looked like, but whatever the case it still looked _really_ weird! And after the business with Shinji's 'close friends' the other day...yeah, everybody was anxious to get the hell out of there and hit the road!

Everyone as filled in on the plan and what they would all be dong as they made their way back to Konoha in time for the Summit. Kakashi and Konohamaru were going to be training both Shinachiku and Sarada, while Tsunade and Shizune would continue checking up on Hanami and 'borrowing' the services of local village hospitals they passed by in order to replicate more of the antidotes in their possession. Kurenai would be training the Hyūga twins and as well as Bagu, while Guy, despite his paralysis, was _insisting_ with excessive passion that he be allowed to train Burandon, the boy having finally awoken from his coma last night. Yamato volunteered to try training Shikadai, Inojin and Chōchō, feeling someone should step in for what should have been his old friend Asuma's job; The others agreed to help the three of them out too, particularly Kurenai. they offered to teach Sunako some lessons as well, but she declined the invitation.

As they set out for the village, the children all had to admit that they were feeling pretty confident about all of this, even Shinachiku despite the emotional breakthrough he'd had the night before (which everyone noticed had him in much better spirits today). To think, they were going to be trained by the very same shinobi masters who had trained their parents!

As arrogant and fool-hearty as it was, the mere thought of it gave them hope that they could do their part in taking Taka down! Them, with their new training, together with their parents after they broke them out, why, they'd be...indestructible...

_I can feel it coming over me__  
__I feel it all around me__  
__I've been waiting for this moment all my life__  
__It's my destiny__  
__There's a fire deep inside of me__  
__It's waiting to come out now__  
__No matter what, no matter how__  
__I know I'll make it through somehow_

_'Cuz when the road feels too long__  
__I'll still be holding on__  
__I'm gonna keep on going__  
__I know I'll be strong_

_Indestructible__  
__I won't let nobody break me down__  
__Indestructible__  
__Nothing's gonna stop me now__  
__Indestructible__  
__Gonna, gonna make it, gonna keep on going__  
__Indestructible__  
__The last man standing_

_I'm ready for whatever__  
__I'm never giving up__  
__Nothing can break my spirit__  
__'Cuz it's indestructible_

_Can't explain it, it's incredible__  
__The strength I feel inside me__  
__Nothing is impossible__  
__I know I'll find my way__  
__Through a storm, through the darkest night__  
__Whatever comes it's alright__  
__Not gonna turn around__  
__I'm ready for the future now_

_And when the road feels too long__  
__I'll still be holding on__  
__I'm gonna keep on going__  
__I know I'll be strong_

_Indestructible__  
__I won't let nobody break me down__  
__Indestructible__  
__Nothing's gonna stop me now__  
__Indestructible__  
__Gonna, gonna make it, gonna keep on going__  
__Indestructible__  
__The last man standing_

_Nothing is impossible__  
__If you really want it__  
__And I really want it__  
__Not gonna stop, no matter what, no__  
__Yeah this time__  
__Nothing can hold me back, no__  
__Nothing can break me down__  
__My spirit's indestructible_

_Indestructible__  
__I won't let nobody break me down__  
__Indestructible__  
__Nothing's gonna stop me now__  
__Indestructible__  
__Gonna, gonna make it, gonna keep on going__  
__Indestructible__  
__The last man standing_

_Indestructible__  
__I won't let nobody break me down__  
__Indestructible__  
__Nothing's gonna stop me now__  
__Indestructible__  
__Gonna, gonna make it, gonna keep on going__  
__Indestructible__  
__The last man standing_

And so the company walked on, the children smiling in confidence and with a sense of determination in their hearts. At the head of the pack, with his sister and his old friend and future training mate both beside, him, Shinachiku Uzumaki had one thing on his mind:

'Mom, Dad, Uncle Sasuke, Aunt Karin, everybody...hang in there you guys, and stay alive...because _we're_ coming for you!'

* * *

Well, there you go you guys, another chapter in the can! I don't know if this was among my best work or not, but I liked what I had set up here, that even if these kids may not necessarily be a utter match for the forces Taka has at their disposal, they're still going to train to meet the challenge anyway, which I feel is right in the spirit of Naruto!

The song, which is also the title of this chapter, is "Indestructible" by The Next Door (featuring Flo Rida). For those of you who don't know, the song is the opening theme song to "Street Fighter IV." I thought that it was really appropriate for the material and I hope it came across that way. Find a YouTube clip of the song and try and imagine these kids doing a training montage to it.

So yes, Shinachiku is going to be getting training similar to his father's Rasenshuriken training. What will his chakra nature be? Will his just be the same as his father's or something different? Will he even have enough time to get it done, whatever it is?! You'll just have to come back next time the find out.

It looks like Sarada is getting hostile from hanging on to the chakra gem for a while now...Sound familiar? And now the two of them are going to be training together, meaning that the gem will be within Shinachiku's direct vicinity. This may not end well.

The tease for the special moves that Konohamaru was going to teach Shinachiku in the flashback, with the implication that he learned more from Hinata at a later time, is set up for something I plan to pay off is some way later. I'll just leave it at that for now.

Alright, lets discuss the thing that I know you all really want to talk about...the _Evangelion_ reference! LOL! I realize that these are two series that are about as far apart from one another as one can get, but that was part of the joke, the sheer randomness of the whole thing. It was just a weird, cooky joke I had in my head as I wrote this and decided to play with it. We all know how deep, psychological and, frankly, how much of a mind f*** the series is, but we also know the irony that, for a character so well known for being a spineless mess, Shinji nevertheless seems to have at least three women attracted to him (for differing and, ultimately, really disturbing reasons (Oedipus complex anyone?)) and he ultimately never gets with any of them by the end of Third Impact...I don't think...And for anyone who thinks that the love triangle was limited only to Shinji, Rei and Asuka and that there was _nothing_ going on between him and Misato on _any_ level whatsoever, try taking a close look at the series again.

So yes, Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Misato. Is there something weird going on in the back room of this otherwise humble inn? Or is this all just a misunderstanding for something that's otherwise totally innocent and platonic? We'll never know, so I'll just leave it to your imagination.

That's all I've got of this week. Sorry again for the delay, but I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I look forward to seeing you again for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	36. Chapter 34--Clever Planning

Hey folks, thesaiyanjedi here with another chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Alright, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm sorry I've been away for so long. The sad truth is that, while I am still in love with this story and I have every intention of seeing it through to the end, the section of the story that we are in right and have been in for the last several chapters have been increasingly more and more difficult to write. Obviously I have no one to blame but myself, but hey, the sheer size and scale and ensemble cast of this story is what helps makes it what it is.

The other reason it took so long to get this chapter out is because I has two weeks back to back where I felt inclined to put out one shots set in this continuity. If you haven't read them yet, please do me a big favor and go check them out. The first one is "An Uzumaki Family Halloween" and gives us a taste of Naruto and Sakura and the kids during, well, Halloween. I'm proud of some of imagery and the fun and spook atmosphere I created for that one. The other story is "Shinachiku's First Birthday," which I timed to be posted on November 7, the day most NaruSaku fans seem to acknowledge as the character's birthday because that was the day the manga originally ended and we unofficially adopted him into our fandom ever since...my goodness has is seriously been a year already?!

As for this chapter a lot of ground is covered her as we will catch up with several parties, not all of them, but some. Also, a big shout out to my friend LegendaryWriterS for his suggestions on what I ought to do for this chapter; I'll go into it more at the end of the chapter.

Well, with all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 34: Clever Planning**

"Alright, are you kids ready?"

Shinachiku and Sarada turned to one another with a silent expression, no words exchanged between them, before looking back to their instructors. "Hai Konohamaru-sensei!"

"Very good," Konohamaru said in a serious tone. "Kakashi?"

The old ninja master and former kage pulled out a sheet of paper. "I'll presume that both of you kids know what these are?"

"Hai," Sarada responded analytically. "That is a sheet of paper grown from a special chakra grown tree. They help a shinobi to discover their proper chakra nature."

"Precisely." He handed a sheet of paper to Shinachiku. "As I'm certain you already know, there are five different chakra natures that a shinobi may be naturally suited to: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Lightning." The kids nodded in understanding. "Now, things are pretty straightforward from here. All you need to do is to focus a little bit of chakra into the paper and whatever the effect is will tell us what kind of chakra nature you possess."

"I know sensei, I read it in—"

"Your dad's book. We know Shinachiku! Jeez! Don't be such a snob alright!"

The other three ninjas stood is surprise at the girl's sudden outburst. Kakashi, however, eyed her suspiciously, already concerned that 'you-know-what' was having its undesirable effect on her.

"Umm...Sarada?" Shinachiku questioned. "Are you okay?"

The boy's voice seemed to snap her out of whatever was the cause of her adverse mood swing. "W-What? Huh? Oh I fine Shina, really? I don't know why I said that, please forgive me."

The blonde-haired boy merely smiled at the raven-haired girl, totally oblivious that anything out-of-the-ordinary might be afoot. "Don't worry about it."

"Ahem!"

The kids both turned their heads at the sound of Konohamaru coughing to get their attention.

"Now then, if you kids are both done having random outbursts...or flirting...maybe we could get back to work?"

The two kids blushed dark red. "SENSEI!"

The once mischievous young Sarutobi smirked in amusement. "Come on kids, time's short. Sarada, as an Uchiha I'm assuming you already know that your chakra nature is fire correct?

"Hai. My dad has already taught me some of my clan's basic fire techniques already. But he never ddid get around to teaching me all the ins and outs of nature transformation like we're doing here."

"I see. In that case this will be mainly for Shinachiku's benefit, but Sarada, you be sure to pay close attention since this might teach you something." The Sarutobi turned to his prized student. "Shina, focus your chakra like Kakashi said."

"Right!" the boy confirmed.

The Uzumaki boy focused their chakra, closing his eyes as a slight breeze whipped past him. It was almost like he was deep in meditation. Time seemed to slow down as he focused on the piece of paper that he held in his hands.

After what felt like several minutes, but was really about ten seconds, Shinachiku's piece of paper cut right down the center, splitting into two halves.

"Well I'll be."

"What does this mean sensei?" Sarada asked.

"It means Sarada," Konohamaru explained, "that while your specific chakra nature is fire, like your father and most of your clan, Shinachiku here is a wind user."

The boy stared at the cut piece of paper he was holding. "Just like my dad?"

"Yes. Its a rare gift; you should be pleased."

"The boy kept looking at the paper and smiled bigger. "I am.

"So that piece of paper cutting in half is supposed to resemble wind?" Sarada asked.

"Yes," Kakashi answered. "Each person's chakra nature has a different reaction when they channel their chakra into the paper. If you had done it Sarada, then the paper instead would have burned up and turned to ash. Furthermore, a water chakra nature would cause the paper to become soggy, an earth chakra nature would cause it to turn to turn to dirt and crumble away, and in my case, lightning chakra would—"

"I think I get the idea sensei, thank you."

Sarada's semi-rude stopping of his lecture could not help but make Kakashi frown; why did she have to stop him just as he was getting to the very end?

Konohamaru took over. "Now that we both know your specific chakra natures, we can begin instructing you in the art of nature transformation. With this you will be able to mold and create unique, original jutsu that is specially designed to be most useful for each of you. But keep in mind that each elemental chakra nature comes with its own specific strengths and weaknesses."

"Indeed," Kakashi started again. "Shinachiku, as a wind user, your element has a superior advantage against lightning techniques like my Chidori, but you have a weakness against fire abilities."

The boy eyeballed the girl standing right next to him. "I see...So then if Sarada and I were ever to—?"

"In the elemental sense only; don't forget both of your father have the exact same chakra natures that you both do, and you both know ho that story ultimately ended."

It was only then that the masked ninja recognized the clearly awkward, uncomfortable looks on both children's faces. 'Okay...on second though, maybe that _wasn't_ such a smart thing to say after all.'

"And Sarada, as a fire user, you may have the advantage against wind techniques but obviously water in your weakness."

"Naturally," the girl said bluntly.

"Although," Knohamaru said, "there have been a number of talented shinobi that have succeeded in creating combined nature transformations."

Shinachiku was already catching on, "You mean the combinations of more than one type of chakra nature?"

"That's right. For example, in your father's first real mission he encountered a shinobi named Haku who had ice release abilities; he was able to do this by combining both wind and water natures together to form his own techniques."

Kakashi provided another example, "Captain Yamato is another example. His wood release abilities are the result of combining both earth and water natures."

Sarada was taking this all in as the boy standing next to her got another question. "Sensei, has there ever been a shinobi that has combines both wind and fire chakra natures before."

"As a mater of fact there has," Konohamaru answered. "I believe was, err...What was it...? Pakura I think her name was. Yes, she was able to combine those two chakra natures together for what she called Scorch Release abilities."

As the boy seemed deep in thought about what he'd just been told (something that made both Jōnin very curious), Sarada had been thinking about her own specific chakra nature as well, the one that belonged to her family. She was interested in how much she could accomplish with her ability and the full potential of it's power.

"Kakashi-sensei, what other kinds of combined nature transformations can a ninja with fire abilities create?"

Kakashi though for a moment before answering, "Well, beside the Scorch release that Konohamaru had just mentioned, one can combine fire and earth natures to create Lava release abilities, which I would presume to be the most practical combination. But besides that one can also combine the opposite elements of fire and water to create a Boil Release."

"What about combining fire and lightning?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Hmm...I'm afraid I've never heard of any shinobi pulling off something like that. In fact I'm not ever sure is such a combination is even practical. Why? Do you have any ideas dear?"

"No, not really." She thought to herself, 'Not yet.'

"So sensei," Shinachiku spoke up, "When do we begin our training?"

Konohamaru merely smiled at his pupil's familiar sense of determination. "Right now."

* * *

"So how long would you say its been?"

Sasuke turned to his wife hanging next to him. "Maybe a day or two. Why?"

Karin shook her head. "I just felt I should at least be sure to keep track of the time to make sure I don't go insane."

"I'll tell you what's keeping me sane," Sakura said from the cell across from them, "worrying where our children are!"

"We're all worried about them Sakura," Naruto reassured her.

"Then when are we going to do something to get ourselves out of this mess?"

Sasuke was the one to answer that question. "As soon as we can figure out what we can do to break free of these chains and get out of these cells with absolutely no chakra or weapons or backup of any kind. _That's_ when."

There was silence in the twin jail cells. Nobody could think of anything to say to that grim reality...That is, until a certain blonde-haired jinchūriki suddenly had a spark of realization.

"Wait! Oh my GOD! What the hell was I _thinking!_"

"What?

The toad sage could of slapped his own forehead if he wasn't so thoroughly bound up. "Listen you guys, they may have taken it off of me, but I sometimes like to hide a small razor blade in my sandal to use for moments like this."

"You're right," Sasuke said, "they probably _did_ take it off of you."

"Thanks for the support Sasuke," Naruto responded in sarcasm. "Anyway, maybe I can shake it out of my boot and use it to try cutting the chains holding us here?"

"And how are you going to reach your sandal when you're tied up?" Karin questioned.

"Like this."

Naruto gathered his strength to swing his body back and forth, putting particular momentum into his legs. He eventually did this enough times that he was able to plant his feet atop the steel bars of the cell their hands were bound to. This put him in the uncomfortable position of having himself curled into a ball shape, upside down, hanging several feet above the ground.

"That looks uncomfortable," the Uchiha remarked.

"Shh!" Sakura snapped at her former crush. "Shut up and let him work Sasuke!"

Naruto, despite the position he was in, smiled at his wife's defense of him, especially considering that many years ago she would not have hesitated to take Sasuke's side over his own.

Any, getting focused again, he managed to position his bound palms underneath his feet as he shook them until something fell out of his sandal into his hand. It was a small razor blade just as he said it. It was very thin and small and tucked away in a spot to avoid discomfort, and it has a thin plastic lining so that the blade would not cut into the soft underside of his foot.

Getting a hold of the razor, he managed to slip the plastic off and slowly but surely began cutting one of the pivotal links in the chains holding him to the wall. Despite the angle he was in, and the blood rushing to his head, it did allow him to get a better view of the chain he was cutting and it would allow him easier effort to use his weight to break the chain once it was loose enough.

"Naruto!" Sakura said with glee, "you're a genius!"

"Thanks honey. But this still may take a bit."

Sasuke then suddenly remembered something. "Well in that case, I might as well follow suit."

All of sudden Sasuke made the exact same movements that Naruto did, swinging his bound legs back and forth until he finally had enough momentum to out himself into the same position as his former teammate.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" Karin question in confusion.

"I'm following through with a good idea."

Shaking his foot that was now standing on the top bars, he shook an identical razor out of his sandal and it landed in the former missing nin's palm.

Naruto looked like he was going to have a conniption. "You mean to tell me that you had a secret razor stored in your shoe too?! THIS WHOLE TIME?!"

"Oh cut me a break dobe! I gotten into a habit of doing this during all my years on the road. I just got so used to not using it that I forgot it was there until you got yours out first. Hell, if anything, _I_ likely thought of the idea before _you_ did."

Naruto sweat dropped as he frowned. 'For the love of...All these years and even now he _still_ finds some way to upstage me.'

Sasuke took the plastic off his razor and started cutting. The two women didn't have a whole lot to do but wait until their husband's finished cutting themselves free so they could have their turn. But both of them had a similar thought on each of their minds: 'I'm going to have to remember to start doing that from now on.'

The cutting was gong slow but it was making progress. But alas, they were forced to stop when they heard the sound of the door to their prison wing opening up. Quickly so as not to be noticed, Naruto and Sasuke pushed themselves out of their upside down position and back to the how they originally were. This bound up position was particularly rough for Sasuke; don't forget, he was being forced to hold all of his weight bound up with only one arm this entire time!

Trying to act as inconspicuous as possible, they pretended not to be up to anything when an Anbu guard came in with a pail of water and a very long ladle.

"Lord Uragi says that I'm supposed to supply you with water so long as you're here," the guard said.

"Uragi can take care of us however he wants," Sakura stated. "We won't talk."

"We'll see." The guard dipped the ladle into the pail of water and then pushed the ladle between the bars of Sasuke and Karin' cell. The handle was long enough to reach the prisoners mouths while being held from outside their cells.

"Drink."

After sharing a silent exchange with only their eyes, Sasuke hung there as his wife was served her drink of water. The guard then did the same for Sasuke who took the drink without complaint. Pulling the ladle out of the prison bars, the guard refilled it and then served some water to Sakura, and then again to Naruto.

"There," the guard said coldly. "Mission complete. My partner is scheduled to bring you all food in four hours."

Naruto pretended to be respectful. "We understand. Thank you for your hospitality good sir."

The guard merely brushed off his former Hokage's remark in disgust before slamming the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, the four prisoners quickly got to strategizing.

"Four hours, plenty of time," Naruto noted.

"Agreed," Sasuke said. "As a matter of fact, the next guard's arrival might be the perfect opportunity to make our getaway."

Sakura spoke for both herself and her husband. "What are you suggesting Sasuke?"

"I'm suggesting that Naruto and I continue working to cut our chains free and then we pass the blades to you girls and then after that..."

There was a pause as the Uchiha seemed to be pondering his own words. Karin was the one to break the silence. _"Well?!"_

"After that, all of you just do what I'm about to say..."

* * *

Uragi was sitting in the Hokage's office, filing out paperwork for the day, the usual stuff. Approving new mandates, reinforcing villager restrictions, thing like that. But his primary responsibility was to make sure that all was ready in time for the Kage Summit.

'Yes...yes this is going well. In less than two weeks the wait will be over and Taka will finally be able to give this world the order it deserves.'

The interim Hokage was interrupted from his thoughts when he suddenly heard a knock on his office door. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal a pair of shinobi, one a tall, blond-haired male, the other a female with long, flowing red hair. Both of them had eyes as cold as ice.

"Ah! Minato! Kushina! I was hoping to see you two again. Good to have both of you back in the village before the Summit. Having you two here will be a huge insurance policy for us."

The two shinobi did not say anything for several moments, until finally the male decided to just get serious. "My lord, we apologize for our failure. We were not able to bring the targets back to the village as commanded."

"Think nothing of it son. You proved yourselves capable of holding your own again Uzumaki and his friends and now all of them are our prisoners. Soon they will be punished for their treachery."

The woman spoke up next, "How were the targets captured my lord?"

"I contacted our sleeper agent within the Hidden Sand Village to lead a squadron to apprehend them; his skills coupled with our chakra nullifying serum proved to be a invaluable combination." The older man lightly chuckled to himself before he continued. "Funny, it turns out that the Kazekage himself had been harboring our targets and so he had to be taken into custody with the rest of them."

"Isn't that going to be a problem for our plans?"

Uragi shook his head. "No, no, we've got that under control." His eyes darted briefly towards a drawer in his desk where a familiar blue gem was resting inside.

The two ninja's did not say anything else for a few seconds before the male chose to speak up again. "Sir...what punishment will the prisoners be given for their actions against Taka?"

Uragi sat up in his chair to answer. "It's very simple my friend. Those people, Uzumaki, his wife, the Uchiha and his wife, all of their friends who have betrayed us to aid them, those people are what stands in the way of Taka's revolution, of our saving this world. AS far as we are concerned their fate has already been decided. The Mind Gem will be attempted on their allies and those who succumb will surely be valuable assets in the new order. Those who are able to resist will share Uzumaki and Uchiha's fate."

The blonde man spoke again, "What will be their fate?"

"They will be tried, they will be found guilty, and they will be **executed** for their treachery!"

Something came over the red-haired woman when she heard that. Something about all of this, it didn't feel right. Something about what their target, his name, what he and his son had called them back in the Whirlpool Village, it all seemed strange...familiar...almost as if..."

"My lord," the woman said, "the prisoners, Uzumaki and his wife...have we met them before?"

Uragi sudden stood up from his chair at that question, slowly and unassumingly reaching for the 'special' drawer of his desk. "What do you mean?"

The man was having similar misgivings, the events of what had happened in Uzushiogakure playing over in his mind, making him curious about thing that were said, familiar sensations that he had felt. And not only there, but from later observation as well...

* * *

...It was several days ago, in the woodlands of the Hidden Sound Village. The two assassins had secretly tracked their targets from a considerable distance to this location. For the time being they were invoking a undercover examination mission, not alerting the enemy to their presence...They were not certain why they felt this was the wiser choice or action, only that to launch an outright attack on Uzumaki and his party right ways did not seem...Well, they did not know what to make of it.

The blonde haired man, Minato, found his mind drifting back to his fight with the former Seventh Hokage. He was impressed at how much his fighting style reflected his own. Clearly the man had been well trained, living up to the reputation that he had earned...

Not only that, but...his face. Minato could not deny that Naruto Uzumaki's face was awfully familiar...

'Naruto...' That name, that face...it was almost like...like something out of a dream.

The red haired woman, Kushina, was also in deep thought. She was a ninja and as such she needed to keep her mind focused on her mission, no distractions. Taka would not tolerate anything less.

And yet that word, that name her target had called him, try as she might if would not leave her head.

_Mom..._

What did that word even mean? She could not remember. Then again, something else about this Naruto Uzumaki person seemed very familiar like some thing out of a dream...

She could feel her heart rate quicken the more she thought about him. The way he fought, the things he'd said, the uncanny resemblance he bore to her teammate. Even his last name, which had meant nothing to her when she was first given this mission, was beginning to sound more and more familiar the more time she ran it through her mind.

_Uzumaki...Uzumaki..._

Both of them were snapped out of their trains of thought however. Why? Because they could hear the sound of footsteps stepping on twigs and grass approaching them. Both assassins got their kunai's ready for an imminent attack, but they found themselves lowering them when they saw who it was.

The target's son, the one they called Shinachiku Uzumaki, wandering the woods looking for something. He found it soon enough as he approached a nearby tree and pulled down his fly. The boy proceeded to urinate against the tree.

"Aaaahhh! I've been holding that in for days!"

As the boy was emptying his bladder he noticed something. It looked like movement in the bushes and trees off in the distance. He eyed it suspiciously because he only got a quick look, so quick that he wondered whether or not he really saw anything at all.

By the time he was done, he zipped himself up and walked over to the bushes and trees in question. He looked around for anything suspicious, but he could not find a trace of movement anywhere, or any evidence that anyone or anything besides himself had been there.

"Shinachiku! Are you all right?!"

The boy turned as he heard the voice calling him from a distance. "I'm fine Aunt Ino! I'll be right there!"

As he started heading back towards the group, he could have swore he heard something else that sounded like bushes rustling. He looked back one more time but again he saw nothing. Getting over it, he figured that his mind was just playing tricks on him an decided to head back to the others.

In the bushes, the two assassins were able to avoid detection from the boy. It was strange, this child was nothing more than a mere Genin. Easy prey, easy kill. In fact, he would have made an easy ransom for Uzumaki's surrender...And yet something was holding them back. There was no chance that either of them had ever seen this child before, but it was as though some invisible force, some nagging, persistent sense of hesitation was holding them back from laying a finger on this child. It was as though his mere presence was trigger something, some strange, warming sensation inside of their hearts.

"What is that boy?" the woman asked aloud.

"I do not know," the man answered, "but we cannot afford to show weakness next time."

* * *

"Lord Uragi," Minato asked, "what ever became of Uzumaki's son? Was he captured along with his parents and their allies?"

"No. As far as we know the boy, his sister, and the children of the other traitors are still at large. I don't see much need for concern however; they're just children after all, and the adults that currently aid them, strong though they may be, and all well passed their prime by now."

"What should we do if the children return to the village?"

"Kill them if necessary."

Something about what Uragi had just said, and more specifically _how_ he said it, did not seem to click very well with either of the two resurrected shinobi, particularly not the woman.

"Sir, with all due respect, perhaps there is an alternative option to—?"

Kushina's suggestion was cut short when she and her partner were suddenly entranced by a small, glowing blue object that their leader had pulled from his desk and held in his hand. The light of the glowing object, a gem, was so intoxicating that they found themselves virtually powerless to look away.

"You were saying something my dear?"

Minato and Kushina's eyes flashed blue before returning back to normal again. Kushina promptly answered the question. "No my lord, none at all."

"Good. Is there anything else?"

"No sir," said Minato.

"Very well, dismissed."

Both shinobi exited the office just as emotionless as when they were first given their assignment several days ago. This left Uragi to get back to work and keep filling out more paperwork, returning the chakra gem back into his desk drawer. But he only got a dew minutes of work done before he heard someone else knocking on his door again.

"I told you two you were dismissed!"

The door opened to reveal that it was not Minato and Kushina that had come seeking an audience with him, but a certain red-clan missing nin with a very peculiar personality and a mask occurring his head.

Uragi groaned, "Oh, its _you_."

"Yep! Its me! you're old pal Randamu! I just came by to collect the bounty on Naruto and his smoking hot wife and I'll be on my way."

The interim-Hokage groaned a second time, God he hated this guy! "Fine, give me a second." He got out his checkbook and scribbled some the numbers; quite a massive sum for only two shinobi. He tore out two checks and handed them to the masked eccentric. "Here you are, 40,000,000,000 ryo for Uzumaki and another 30,000,000,000 for Haruno. Take those down to the bank and tell them I sent you and their ensure you get paid. Anything else?"

"No, no that's good Big U!"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry old man."

"Don't call me that either."

"Sorry Pops!"

"No!"

"What name would you like me to call you then?"

"How about Uragi?!"

"Hmm...I guess it has a nice ring to it. Okay _Uragi_, I got my money for this job and I'll ready to go!"

"Good! Then get going! Get the hell out of my office so I can get some work done!"

As Randamu closed the door behind him, he stood just outside the Hokage's office for a couple of seconds, as if he were deep in thought, as if he was actually thinking seriously about something for once. He looked down at the checks he now held in his hand and let out a sigh. Was it worth it?

"Oh what the heck am I saying?! 70,000,000,000! Of course it was worth it! Now get going Randamu, you handsome devil you! You've got a big rest of your day planned after you're done at the bank!"

* * *

"Again!"

The Uzumaki and Uchiha kids were dueling one another ferociously. They have been at this for hours now since Kakashi and Konohamaru wanted to do more than just train the two of them in creating new jutsu, they needed to be sure that they knew how to fight as well in case time proved too short to complete their new jutsu in time.

Shinachiku was trading punches and kicks with Sarada all left and right and each one was dong a fairly good job blocking the other attacks. Sarada could not copy or predict anything her friends would do since she did not yet have her Sharingan, but she was proving quite formidable for her age nonetheless. Shinachiku was likewise holding his own, his years of training with Konohamaru, his father, and those of their friends who had offered him up a free lesson here and there clearly paying off.

'This is going even better than I could have hoped for," Kakashi thought in observance. 'Those two have only been able to spend so much time together since they were born and yet they seem to understand and react to one another so naturally.'

Shinachiku had gotten Sarada in an arm lock until she broke free of it and then flipped him over her shoulder. He did not slam to the ground however as he managed to get his footing just in time.

The blonde quickly pulled out his favorite kunai, a gift his aunt and uncle, Sarada's parents, had given him on his very first birthday. It was a kunai with an orange and red string tied to the base, with a few light threads of blue subtly sown in there too just for good measure. The colors represented each of his parent, orange for his father, red for his mother, and the traces of blue were his Uncle Sasuke. It was a sign of good luck, that both of his parents would watch over him and guide him in his future, in spirit.

'Its funny,' Kakashi kept thinking as he observed. 'When their father's were young it was Sasuke who gave Naruto his strength. He would go to so many lengths, put forth so much effort just to become strong enough to catch up to him I wonder...' he pondered as he kept watching their spar, 'I wonder if with the new generation, the opposite is true.'

Sarada was struggling, but only slightly more than he was. But she was hanging in there. Shinachiku threw his favorite kunai but she dodged it. Thinking fast and she leaped away from his latest falcon kick, Sarada grabbed his favored kunai from the ground and threw it right back at him. She should not have been surprised when he caught it out of thin air; after all, he'd been training with it his whole life.

The duel continued, Sarada performing some agile movements and dodging all of Shinachiku's attacks while he did not hold back on his own assault. But eventually something turned in the course of the battle. Shinachiku managed to find an opening on Sarada's left side and he stock his had straight out with his fingers extended and applied precise pressure to a specific spot on Sarada's shoulder, and then backed off.

"What was that supposed to be?" she questioned with a tinge of rudeness in her voice.

"That was me puncturing a nerve bundle in your deltoid. Might not have hurt, but you won't be using that arm for a while."

She reached over to examine her shoulder and sure enough, when she tried to move it, it would not respond.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"I got my mom to teach about pressure points and then asked my Aunt Hinata to give me a couple of taijutsu lessons."

"You idiot! Look what you've done!"

"There's no need to be a sore loser Sarada. It will heal itself by tomorrow."

"Exactly! That means I've lost a whole day's worth of training to master my new jutsu! A whole day ruined thanks to you!"

And with that the blood drained from the poor boy's face. "Oh crap. Sarada, I'm sorry. I didn't—" He never got to finish his sentence because she was already walking away from him in a huff. "Crap."

At that point Konohamaru came up to him and did his best to reassure him. "She'll be fine, just give her some time. A woman's heart can be a fickle thing."

"I guess."

"Come on, let her vent off some steam while we get back to work on your new jutsu training. And then after that we need to regroup with the others to start moving back towards the village again."

* * *

It had been four hours by now and the two couples were still hanging from their same positions in their cells. Little did anyone realize that they had a little surprise in store for the guard that was about to come in to feed them. You see, by now they'd had plenty of time to cut the chains that were holding them in place and also their feet. the only reason they were still hanging there was because they were grasping the overhead bars with their finger, creating the illusion that they were still chained up for whenever the guard was going to enter. There plan now was to wait for said guard's arrival so that they could jump him, reasoning that unlike the guard with the water, the next guy would most likely be required to open to the doors to feet to go inside to feed them, and _that_ was when they would make their move.

They only had to wait for a couple more minutes before the door to their wing finally opened and the guard finally came in with four trays of food. It was very ill-kept, disgusting food that they doubted was safe for human consumption, but if this plan worked that none of that was going to matter soon anyway.

"Dinner," the guard said flatly. He then took out the key and opened the door to Naruto and Sakura's cell. He brought in two trays with him, setting one of at the feet of both the man and the woman, where it was, as far as the guard knew, out of their reach. After that he began walking out.

"Hey wait!" Naruto called out, "how are we supposed to eat if we're both bound up like this?"

"Not my problem."

"It _will_ be your problem if Uragi finds out that you didn't obey his orders," Sakura countered.

The guard turned around to face her. "My orders were to bring you traitors your food, they said nothing about feeding you."

"And if Uragi finds out that my husband and I starved to death before he could get all of the information he wanted, all because we weren't able to eat, will you be afraid then?"

That insinuation succeeded in causing the desired effect, getting the guard angry. "Watch your tongue woman! I fear **nothing!**" He pulled out a large knife and jabbed in into the food and then held it up to Sakura's face. "Eat!"

Yep! This was it. The opening they were all waiting for. All Sakura had to do was let go of the bars and tackle the guard, take his keys (and maybe his knife too), open the door the Sasuke and Karin's cell, and then the four of them could work on finding their friends and getting the hell out of here!

'That's right big guy, any second now.'

Sakura leaned her in like she was accepting his offer to let him feed her. She got closer...closer...

_WHACK!_

The guard was knocked out cold with a hard blow to the head. There was only one problem though...it _wasn't_ Sakura that knocked him out!

No, once the guard fell to the floor, the four ninjas were stunned to see a familiar face was standing behind him holding a solid metal object in his hand.

They all shouted the name of their unexpected rescuer as one: **_"RANDAMU?!"_**

"Hey guys! How's jail? Did you miss me?"

"Yeah," Karin growled, "I was missing you alright, and now that you're here I have a perfectly good opening to rip your damn throat out!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sensing some animosity here, understandable. But maybe when this is all over with we can all talk this out and—_WHOA!_"

Sakura let go of her hold on the bars and tackled the traitorous missing nin to the ground. "You son of a bitch! I should rip your heart out after what you did to us!"

"But you can't. You don't have any chakra now."

"Yeah, try me!"

"SAKURA!" Naruto's words stopped her and she got up off of the bastard in a angry huff.

"So..." Randamu asked awkwardly as he got up, "...does this mean the threeway is off?"

The missing nin received his answer in the form of a furious kick to his balls. "AAAAAGGGHHHH!" As he fell to the ground cupping his nut sack, he managed to whimper out, "Yeah...deserved that..."

Naruto, Sasuke and Karin had let go of their hold on the bars also as Naruto stood over his traitorous former ally. "Why are you trying to free us after you were the one who turned us over to Taka?"

Struggling with all the strength he had, Randamu answered in a still high-pitched voice, "I never really abandoned you, but I had done a few jobs for Taka in the past I never told SAskue and his crew about. It was just a way to make money before I ever met you guys.

"Really?" Sasuke saidd in an angry tone. "Then why the sudden heel-face turn to hand all of us over to them?"

"My reasons were three."

"We're listening," Sasuke stated with a ruthless glare and his arms crossed.

"One: I was trying to get you inside Konoha; this way you wouldn't have to worry about how to get passed the added security Uragi has set up around the village. Second: I figured that with you guys in the village extra early before the Summit it might give you time to expose Taka to the whole village before the Summit ever starts."

"And the third reason?" Karin questioned angrily.

"Third, and most important of all...I got to claim that 70,000,000,000 ryo bounty on Naruto and Sakura's heads before anybody else did! _Booyah!_"

The others stared at their former ally, who apparently had become their ally once again, with wide-eyed shock.

Naruto was dumbfounded, "You mean to tell us that you just pretended to sell all of us out to the enemy just to give us back into the village ahead of schedule _and_ to make yourself _rich?!_"

"...Yeah."

Sakura slapped him right across the face, hard. "That is the single dumbest, ignorant, most selfish thing I have ever heard in my life!"

"No shit!" Karin agreed. "Randamu, did it ever once occur to you to maybe let the rest of us in on this plan of yours?"

"There wasn't any time, its not like any of us saw that Hyūga's guy's attack coming. And besides, if I _had_ warned any of you then you all might have held back and it wouldn't have looked convincing."

"We were taken out like chumps even _without_ knowing your plan!" Naruto yelled incredulously.

"Yeah I noticed that...Man, getting older must rally suck for you guys, huh?"

"Randamu," Sasuke said, "didn't it ever occur to you that we might be at a disadvantage here in Konoha after Taka used their serum on us?"

The regenerating degenerate sweat dropped when he heard that, scratching the back of his head. "Ah...no, I guess I didn't think about that part. My bad!"

Karin smacked her forehead in disgust. "Gah! You are such an idiot!"

"Hey don't cash in your chips yet. Don't forget that _I_ still have all my chakra at my disposal!"

"And you think that you alone are strong enough to hold off Taka until we can find some sort of an antidote?" Naruto questioned.

The now reformed traitor merely looked at the orange-clad Hokage in mockery. "My friend, I'm a missing nin with no past and now real name with the power to break the Fourth Wall any time and any way I feel like it. There are things I can do that you'll _never_ know about!"

Once again, Randamu did not fail to leave the four of them utterly confused about what to say.

"So, if there aren't any more questions..." He then got out both of his swords in preparation for the fight that was to come. "How about we go track down our friends and figure out a way out of this place?"

* * *

Well there you go, another chapter done and the plot advances even further.

Yes, Randamu was a double agent that pretty much just sold friends out temporarily for a big paycheck, not fully thinking out his plan nearly as well as he thought he had, and yes, he really did expect them all to forgive him right away like it was no big deal. That's the kind of guy he is. But he is right, He does still have his chakra while the others don't. I guess we'l see where that lead next time.

The lecture about nature transformation was for the kid's benefit more than the reader since chances are you guys know all about how this idea of changing one's elemental chakra nature works anyway. I again want to that LegendaryWriterS for his advice on what to do with Shinachiku's chakra nature and I do already have an idea for what his new jutsu should be.

Sarada's however is a bit of a problem. It was obvious to me that she would be a fire user since, lets face it, she is an Uchiha. But I'm not sure what her secondary type ought to be or what her new jutsu should be. I am open to suggestions if anybody has any.

Kakashi pointed out that there is kind of role reversal with this new generation. While Naruto was always the one that was struggling to keep up with Sasuke, that perhaps Sarada, to a much less drastic degree, is now the one working to keep up with Shinachiku. I kind of liked that parallel, but I'll leave it to you guys whether you agree or not.

This chapter pays off something I set up back in Chapter 27. In the scene where Shinachiku leaves to take a piss, he hears something in the woods and doesn't get to find out what it is before he gets called back to the group. Now we know that he was being observed by his mind-controlled grandparents who did not attack him because of...well, you probably all now the reason.

There weren't really any big references this time around save for two, and both of them were related to DC Comics animation. During the sparring session between Shinachiku and Sarada we discover that Shinachiku has studied pressure point combat with Hinata (which I had set up in the previous chapter), and used it to block a nerve bundle in her deltoid, making her unable to move her arm. In the two-part animated film adaptation of "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" (and I certain it's in the graphic novel as well, if I remember correctly), Batman does the exact same thing during his fight in the mud with the Mutant Leader.

Near the end, when Sakura is taunting the guard into feeding her as part of a plan to escape from her prison cell, that was partially inspired by the second part of the epic three-part "Justice League" episode called "Starcrossed." In that episode, the Justice League are being held prison on the Thanagarian's mother ship and Wonder Woman is thrown a plate of disgusting by a guard. All of the League (minus Hawkgirl, for obvious reasons you will know if you've seen the episode) are held captive by something relating to their greatest weaknesses (Superman is placed in a room with a red solar lamp, Flash is in a gravity room so he cannot gain momentum, Green Lantern has had his ring taken away, etc), and in Wonder Woman's case she has been ties up...Yes, look back on the golden age comics and Wonder Woman's weakness was getting bound up by her own lasso...feminists make of that what you will. Anyway, she taunts the guard in a similar manner that Sakura does, and she bite's the guard's hand to catch his knife with her teeth and throw it into a control console to set herself free. The scene with Sakura might have gone a similar way...until I pulled the rug on everything and instead had Randamu show up to save them instead. Don't you just love it when we writers set up a potentially epic escape scene onto to totally pull the rug from under you? In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: "Ain't I a stinker?"

Oh, and one last thing, Uragi's proclamation of the fate he has in store for Naruto and friends, that "They will be tried, they will be found guilty, and they will be **executed** for their treachery!" That was partially inspired by Jedi Genaral Pong Krell, a character from the fourth season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," who proclaimed that the rebellious clone troopers Fives and Jesse would meet the same fate at the end of the episode "Plan of Dissent." That Umbara story arc is one of my favorites from the entire series, and I would personally defy anyone who does not feel that the fourth and final episode of that arc, "Carnage of Krell," is at least in the top five episodes.

I think that's all I've got for this time. Thanks for all of your patience you guys, you're the best! I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing you again for the next one. Until then, see ya!

art out after what you did to us!"

s and tackled the traitorous minning nin to the ground. "You son of a bitch! I should rip yo

to move it, she did not have enoughe in your deltoid. Might not have hurt, but you won't be using that arm for a while."

appl


	37. Chapter 35--Deceptions

What's up everyone, thesaiyanjedi is finally back again with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

First thing's first: I'm sorry I fell behind again. Things got a bit hectic at home, and I actually celebrated my birthday just yesterday. But anyway, I'm back again and I have a new chapter here for you.

Also, I would like to tell you all that the next story you will see from me will not be for this story but a one-shot I will be doing as a favor for one of my fans, Angelz1251. So keep a lookout for that.

About halfway through this chapter you will see Sakura and Karin do something that may upset my fellow NaruSaku fans, but I do have a rational reason for it which I'll discuss later.

Well then, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 35: Deceptions**

'Come on! Keep it going! Keep it going!'

Shinachiku was in the midst of his Rasengan training as the company took refuge at an inn in another village along the path back towards the Leaf Village. All of the children were receiving their own training from their own senior masters, while Tsunade was sneaking into the local hospital to 'borrow' some time in the laboratories to develop an antidote to Taka's serum.

At the moment, Shinachiku was working with three of his shadow clones. The real Shinachiku was compressing his chakra into his hand while one of his clones worked to contain it into a sphere and the second clone focused on changing its chakra nature to wind. The third clone, he was working on something extra special.

Konohamaru smiled at what he was seeing. 'Good. He's gotten the hang of his father's technique. It will due well enough for what's coming at the Summit. More training will be needed so he can do it by himself of course, but it will due for now.'

On the other side of the open field, Kakashi was monitoring Sarada's progress. She was coming along well enough as Kakashi could see sparks of lightning coming from the girl's arm, accompanied by a familiar noise that resembled a bird's chirping.

"ROAR! CHIDORI!"

Sarada thrust her technique into the face of her current instructor but, being the creator of this technique, Kakashi was able to counter it fairly easily.

"Looks like you still have some work to do before you have that down completely young lady," he said.

Sarada looked frustrated, "Agh! This is so frustrating! I should have it down path by now!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the Chidori is my _dad's_ jutsu!"

Kakashi stared at the girl coldly. "And you just assume that you need to progress at the exact same rate as your father?"

"I assume that's what he expects of me. Its like with my Sharingan! I know he's ashamed of me for not activating it yet."

"He said that to you?"

The girl paused awkwardly. "...Well...no. Not out loud he hasn't."

"Oh, I see. Then how do know that he's ashamed of you?"

"I...I don't, I mean..." Sarada paused before she came up with the best excuse she could come up with. "You think I don't know my own father sensei?"

"Of course not. But I like to think I know him pretty well myself. Sasuke had had a pretty troubled life, there can be no arguing that, but I don't see him as the kind to chastise his own child...Not anymore anyway."

Sarada didn't respond and instead turned her head to the side, her hand tucked back into her pocket. Kakashi took notice and tried to reassure her. "Sarada, I mean it, there is no shame in not activating your Sharingan—"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?! **NOTHING!**"

Sarada's outburst stopped the former Copy Ninja in his tracks as he merely stared coldly, knowing exactly where this girl's anger was coming from.

The outburst was also loud enough to distract the other two ninjas that were present. Shinachiku and his clones turned their heads to the source of the voice to see the anger in the girl's eyes. Whatever had sparked it, it was much worse than the chewing out she had given him the day before during their training.

"Hey Sarada, what's going on?'

The girl came too once again, as if she had woken up from a daydream. "Wha-What? Oh, its nothing Shina." She turned to her sensei and bowed in respect. "Please forgive my disrespect sensei. I was out of turn."

Kakashi's eyes looked to the girl's pocket before he closed his eyes, briefly, and looked back at the girl. "Apology accepted. But make sure it does not happen again young lady."

"Hai sensei!"

Konohamaru felt that he ought to do something to cut the atmosphere and to calm things down a little bit. "Hey, tell you what kids, how about we all take a break so we can head back into town for some lunch. After that, lets trade up. Kakashi, you can take over for me on Shina's training and I'll see in I can help Sarada."

"Fair enough," Kakashi agreed. But he then walked over to the younger Jōnin and whispered something into his ear. "Listen, I'm becoming concerned for her. The longer she is forced to hide that thing—"

"You'd rather she let Shinachiku hold onto it? After what it already did to him, you'd risk a relapse? Or risk discarding it so Taka might claim it for their own?"

"Of course not." He turned back to the girl in the distance, "But mark my words, this cursed thing will be their downfall if this lasts too much longer."

* * *

A group of four Anbu guards were walking down the corridor of Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility, all of them coming back from their break. They were manning the night shift and were about ready to arrive at their posts. They wore Anbu masks to conceal their identities as they marched to their duties.

"Hey!"

The four Anbu stopped and readied their weapons at the sound of the voice. They relaxed however once they saw who it was.

"Randamu, the mercenary," one of the Anbu confirmed.

"What are you doing here?" another one of the Anbu questioned.

"I had a message I needed to deliver to the warden. But that's not important. Listen, there's been an accident over here and another guard's gotten hurt _really_ bad! You guys are the first ones to come around, so can you please help out! We need to get this guy to a medic right now!"

The Anbu al looked to one another in silent conversation, then as one they followed Randamu into a dark hallway where there weren't any security cameras installed. Further and further in he led them, until at last they came to the end of the hall to find no injured party waiting for them.

"Hey! What is this?" An Anbu questioned in irritation.

"Its called an ambush."

The voice came from out of the shadows. The four Anbu did not get to see who had said it and did not have enough time to react before they were mobbed and knocked out by four attackers.

One of the strangers knocked out one of the guards with a precise blow to the back of the neck, much like how he had knocked out his own godson several days before in the Land of Whirlpools. The other stranger wasn't in the mood for stealth at the moment so he took a more direct approach, that being a hard left hook right into a guard's face. The remaining two strangers, both women, used their studies in medicine and science to take a different tactic. They each grabbed one of the two remaining Anbu from behind, ripped their masks off, and clasped their hands over their mouths and noses to cut off their air. The two guards struggled but were not able to break free of the women's grip. After several seconds, both Anbu passed out and slumped to the floor to join their fallen companions.

"Well that went well," Karin quipped.

"Yeah, now lets get moving," Sakura ordered as she started stripping off the Anbu's uniform.

The other three followed suit, Naruto fighting the urges to get a peak at his wife as his wife put the Anbu's uniform on over her own clothes, inevitably exposing some of her own skin in the process. Sasuke seemed a little bit less interested in his own wife's changing, but that was just because he was always the more focused of the two men anyway.

Of course, little did the two men know that their wives caught a look at their husband's bare chest as well during this little disguise session. Sakura and Karin's minds briefly drifted off into fantasies of themselves alone with their men, thinking about it had been since either of them—

'Jeez! Get a grip girl!' Both Sakura and Karin thought at the same time. There was too much work to be done right to be thinking about _that!_

After they were all done, they four of them were all disguised as the Anbu guards they had just knocked out, their masks hiding their true identities. They also made sure to procure the guard's weapons; without their chakra at their disposal, they were going to need all the assets they could get.

"Alright," Naruto said as he took charge, "this is a infiltration and rescue mission first, escape mission second. We use these disguises to sneak through the prison unnoticed until we find our friends, free them, and get the hell out of here so we can stop Uragi before the Summit starts."

The others all nodded their heads, even Sasuke.

"What about me?" Randamu asked pointing to himself.

"As far as Taka knows you're still on their side," Sasuke stated. "You won't need a disguise and it will be simple enough to come up with an excuse for why you are traveling with an Anbu escort."

"Yeah but...I _still_ think that it would have been a lot easier if we had stuck with the escape plan I had in mind when I busted you guys out."

"Oh yeah," Karin said sarcastically, "because just running through the prison with swords drawn hacking and slashing at everything that moves when we're easily outnumbered here was a _brilliant_ idea!"

"I told you I could heal form whatever they could throw at me!"

"But **WE** can't!" Sakura snapped in anger. "Randamu, suppose we did it your way, you standing in front of us with us four behind. What could happen if on of the guards get lucky and lands a crucial shot at one of us? We'd be vulnerable and unable to heal ourselves."

Randamu huffed in irritation. "I know Naruto would have gone with a full frontal assault."

The former Hokage merely shifted his eyes beneath his mask. "I'm a lot older and less stupid than I used to be. Sometimes stealth and secrecy are the best option."

"Come on," Sasuke interrupted, "lets stop wasting time and get moving."

Naruto raised an eyebrow beneath his mask. "I thought _I_ was the one giving the orders here?" Sasuke did not dignify that question with response, so they all started moving without any more words.

The company of five walked together down the halls of the prison, Randamu in front and the others behind two at a time. The four ninja were standing straight and stiff to appear as professional as possible and to not draw attention. A couple of Anbu questioned why Randamu was they and why he was under four-man guard, but the excuse was that Uragi specifically ordered it while the red-masked loudmouth was here attending to professional business on the interim-Hokage's behalf. Sasuke was careful to place himself away from the guards they passed by so they would not notice his limp sleeve that flapped in the air, a telltale sign of his missing arm and, therefore, a dead giveaway to his true identity.

They searched the prison until they finally came to the control room, filled with monitors for all of the cells in the prison. for the record, they got lucky in that, when Randamu first arrived at the prison, he had drugged the tea that was drunk by the guard on monitor duty so that he would not be able to report the breakout to security.

The room had been quiet ever since, as it often was when security was in there by himself. Two more Anbu were standing watch outside the control room that were not there when Randamu came here the first time. They would need to be removed for the operation to continue.

"Let Karin and I handle this," Sakura said.

The two women left the group to go approach the guards. As soon as they saw them approach, the security stiffed up and questioned both of them.

"What is the meaning of this?" One of the Anbu asked, saying it more as a blunt statement than as a legitimate question.

"We have been assigned to relieve you of guard duty," Sakura answered. "Lord Uragi's orders."

The two guards looks to one another before turning back to face them.

"We weren't notified," the other Anbu stated. "We'd better report in to confirm—"

"Oh, is that really necessary?" Karin asked in a particularly suggestive voice. She got her self really close to one of the guards and even put her hand on his chest. "Can't this just stay between you as me handsome?"

The guard was, to say the least,, overwhelmed by this mysterious kunoichi's forwardness. "M-Miss? I don't know who you are, but there are clear rules about inappropriate activity while on du—"

The guard never got to finish his sentence because before he knew it, Karin had lifted both of their masks up just enough to expose their lower faces, and then she slammed her lips onto the guard's.

"Hey! What the—"

The other guard was about the make a move to stop the sudden action, but he too was cut off because Sakura had done the exact same thing, lifting up both of their masks enough for her to kiss him on the lips.

Over in the corner, Naruto and Sasuke were, needless to say, less than pleased to see this. Sasuke was actually scowling beneath his mask, and Naruto was clenching his fist in irritation. Even if they were both mature enough to know that this was all part of their wives' plan to get into the control room, that didn't make it any easier for them to watch.

"Aw man!" Randamu whined. "Look what they're doing! I swear if this wasn't a deep cover mission I'd so be playing some Barry White music right now!"

"Shut up!" Both the Uzumaki and the Uchiha shouted as one.

The two guards had allowed their hormones to overtake them as they related into their respective kisses. As they were distracted, Karin slyly guided her hands down to the guard's waist. silently snapping the keys off of his belt.

That was Sakura's cue to **finally** break the lip lock, along with Karin. As disgusting as that experience was, it was all worth it now that they got what they needed. Now they just needed to keep up the act until they left.

"Like we said boys," Sakura said in a sexy voice, "we've got the net watch...But feel free to stop by at the end of our shift..."

Karin finished her friend's sentence for her, in an equally suggestive voice. "...For some _fun._"

That was all the encouragement the now very impressionable males needed as they left the two women to fill their posts, with the false-promise of more _fun_ to come in the future.

Once the two guards left, Karin used her key to the unlock the door and both women went inside. Once the door was closed, they both gagged and spat out saliva in total disgust.

"AAH!" Sakura cried. "Oh GOD! His breath! Yuck!"

"EEK! Gross!" Karin was no less disgusted. "I think that guy tried to slip me the tongue!"

"I can't believe you started that Karin!"

"He was going to call us out! I had to think of **something!**"

"Yeah! But you could have just knocked them out of something!"

"I was afraid we might be on camera! Besides, you did the same thing!"

"Only to stop the other guy! God! What if Naruto and Sasuke were watching us?!"

"Well they're gonna be pissed, naturally. But at least we did what we had to do to get in here. I mean, let's face it, we're kunoichis, the art of seduction is one of the greatest weapons we have."

Sakura _really_ did not want to admit it, but Karin did technically have a point. Still, she was fully prepared for a serious backlashing from Naruto for this; after all, she knew that she would act no differently is she had caught him charming another woman all for the sake of completing a mission.

Well, whatever the case, they were inside the room now and wouldn't you know it, the security guard inside the room was still out like a light.

"Right where Randamu left you," Sakura said aloud.

"Alright, lets take a look at the monitors," Karin advised.

The two women scanned the screens before them and carefully looked for the cameras that showed where their friends were being held captive.

"There they are!" Sakura pointed at two particular screens.

Studying the cameras, it appeared that the others were being held a special wing kept under heavy guard. Shikamaru, Temari and Kankurō were all sharing a cell together, while across from them in another cell were Sai, Ino, Chōji and Kurai. Hinata, Kiba and Shino were locked in together in the third cell, and Lee and Tenten had the fourth cell fourth cell all to themselves.

Everyone was accounted for, but the Karin noticed something suspicious. "Hey, where's Gaara?"

Sakura looks at the monitors more closely. "I don't know. But we'll find out when we get them out of there, Do we know which wing they're in?"

"Yeah," Karin pointed to the readout a the corner of the screen. "Detention block AA-23. Come on, lets go report back to the guys."

And so the two kunoichis shut down the security cameras, all of them, before they exited the control room and made their way back down the hall to their husbands...Their husbands who both had their arms folded and, even with their masks hiding their faces, both women could tell they were upset.

"Naruto," Sakura began, "honey, I know what you're thinking, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see that, but I swear we only did what we had to do to get rid of security."

"Yes," Karin chimed in. "Sasuke, you know I would never—"

Karin was caught off guard as she and Sakura were both grabbed by their husband, who had copied their wives little tactic earlier by lifting both off their masks up long enough to give them a passionate kiss.

Sakura and Karin were obviously caught off guard, but they were quick to relax into their kisses and wrap their arms around their men. Karin slipped her tongue into Sasuke's mouth, eager to savor his taste and wipe the putrid smell of the other guard from her mouth. Sakura did the same and even moaned into her husband's mouth as he felt her run his hands along her body.

Randamu could only stand there and write things down on a tiny notebook that he pulled form nowhere. "Note to self: If your lover has to kiss another man for the sake of a mission, apparently kissing her back is a good way of letting her know you forgive her."

After breaking their passionate lip lock, Naruto looked her in her emerald eyes and demanded something of her. "Just tell me those words I need to hear."

Sakura knew exactly what he wanted, so she placed her hand on his whiskered cheek and spoke from her heart. "I love you."

As she kissed him again Karin grabbed Sasuke's face and looked him in the eyes. "And I love you."

The Uchiha's only reaction was merely to say "I know" before he kissed her.

"Ahem!"

The two couple's turned to look at the source of the noise, their kooky friend in the red mask. "I hate to interrupt you four lovebirds, but maybe we should go looking for your friends now?"

Naruto and Sasuke nodded to on another in agreement before they each looked to their wives.

"Karin, did you and Sakura find out which cells they're being held in?"

"Yes Sasuke, they're in detention block AA-23."

"Then what are we waiting for," Naruto asked matter-of-factly as he put his Anbu mask back over his face. "Lets get started already!

* * *

"Alright, lets see you try it."

"Right!"

Shinachiku created four shadow clones to resume his Rasengan training. Only this time they were not working on actually making a Rasengan like he was with Konohamaru. Instead, Kakashi was having the boy go through a different kind of exercise. He and each of his clones were holding a leaf in the palms of their hands and were focusing their chakra upon the leaf to make it cut in two.

This was the same training that the old master had put the boy's father through long ago, in order to help him to master his change in chakra nature. Sadly, Shinachiku was at a disadvantage that his father did not have. for while Shinachiku could easily make several shadow clones, he did not have the Nine Tails' unlimited chakra reserves within his system and therefore his ability to train with his father's technique was limited.

Still, Kakashi reasoned that this would be the best option with the time that was available to them.

'Come on...Come on...COME ON!'

Shinachiku focused as hard as possible, using all of the concentration that he had, holding that concentration for what felt like hours. Until, at last, he could withstand it no longer and collapsed from exhaustion, his shadow clones puffing out of existence before he hit the ground.

Although, the boy never did hit the ground as Kakashi was able to use his ninja speed to catch him before he suffered a concussion. He laid the exhausted boy on the grass as he slept.

But, careful not to wake him, the old master opened up the boy's clenched fist to see what it held. The leaf was not cut clean through, but the cut was remarkable deep, nearly halfway already!

'Remarkable...even his father wasn't able to progress this quickly this early into his training. There may be hope for this lad yet.'

Looking up from his current charge, Kakashi observed Konohamaru, who at the moment was busy with a sparring match between himself and the daughter of the Uchiha clan. Every blow the Sarutobi threw the girl was able to either block or evade. Her own blows were numerous, and while Konohamaru was able to block them well enough (he was a Jōnin after all), he was impressed with her ferocity.

Konohamaru threw a kick at the girl's legs but she leaped over it and retaliated by throwing a kunai straight at her teacher's head. He dodged it, but needed to do so with more speed than he was anticipating. He rolled out of the way and only had enough time to block her rapid assault of kicks and punches.

'What is with this girl?! It's like she's fighting like someone possessed! Like she's being overcome with fury over something! Like she's...Like she's...'

It was in the midst of their trading blows that the answer to the girl's reckless behavior became obvious. 'The gem. She's being fueled by the gem!'

"WAIT! Sarada wait!"

The girl was too caught up in her own thought to process her sensei's command. Instead she used the opening to push the adult ninja down to the ground, pin him, and hold a kunai straight at his throat!

Konohamaru, likely would have been gutted right there...had Kakashi not been paying close attention and grabbed the girl's wrist just in the knick of time! The girl struggled to free herself from the form kage's grip, but he remained firm.

"Drop it Sarada!" She struggled, growling like an animal while doing it, with traces of red in her usually black eyes. "I said drop it! NOW!"

Something finally came over the girl in that moment. The red light disappeared from her eyes and her reality came back into focus. She regained her awareness of where she was, and of where she was holding her kunai. Utter horror washed over her; she had nearly killed her own sensei, _his_ sensei!

In a panic, Sarada leaped off of Konohamaru and dropped her kunai to the ground in disgust.

"S-Sen...Sensei I'm...I'm sorry."

Konohamaru got up, clear and understandable disappointment visible in his face but still with some clear recognition of what the source of all her aggression is.

"Sarada Uchiha," Kakashi yelled, "do you realize what you almost did?!"

"Hai sensei..."

"You could have killed your own instructor!"

"Hai sensei..."

"Young lady! I think you've had enough training for one day! Go back to the inn and wait for us there! That's an order!"

The girl was shocked. Had she _really_ gone that far? But she knew better than to try arguing with her teachers, so she conceded and started walking back with her head hung low. "Hai sensei."

Konohamaru could only turn his head to the side and sigh as he saw the girl heading back to their resting place in shame. Kakashi was doing the right thing after all, but that did not mean that this could have been any less painful for her.

But, as she was walking past Kakashi, the older ninja grabbed her arm to prevent her from leaving too soon. "Just a minute Sarada."

"What is it Konohamaru-sensei?"

"Young lady, before you go back, I'm afraid there's something I'm going to have to take from you."

* * *

"Alright, this is the correct wing," Naruto said. "Sakura, did you and Karin remember to shut down all the security cameras?"

"Yes. Form here on we shouldn't have a problem with alerting any more guards."

"OH!" Randamu clamored in with childlike excitement. "Does this mean I get to cut people up now?!"

Sasuke groaned allowed. "Yes, yes, if you absolutely have to."

"YAY!" The missing-nin with the mouth immediately reached for his two katana blades that were strapped to his back.

"BUT!" Sasuke shouted, "But don't draw your swords unless we actually get into a fight. Got it?!"

Randamu put his harms back down and pouted. "Aw man!"

The five shinobi walked in the same inconspicuous manner that they had been earlier, the four Leaf ninja masquerading as Anbu escort for Randamu, until they at last tracked down the correct wing of the detention block they were searching for. They were greeted by four Leaf ninja stationed there on security duty.

"What are all of you doing here?" one of the guards questioned.

"We've received orders from Lord Uragi himself," Naruto said in a put-on voice that sounded so laughably, _cartoonishly_ fake that the others, his wife included, had to fight the urge to smack their own foreheads at their leader's familiar sense of stupidity.

"Hey," another one of the guards, a very young kunoichi, likely of Chūnin said to Naruto, "What's going on with your voice?"

Sasuke took that opening to step in, using another fake voice, but one that sounded far more natural and convincing. "Please excuse my partner her, he's been fighting a cold. But he is correct, Lord Uragi has sent us here to relieve you of duty guarding the prisoners."

"None of us received any notification," the first guard said. Behind him, the other three guards were already getting their weapons out.

The two women noticed this and did not need any spoken instructions from their husbands before they quietly moved themselves into position so that the guards would not take extra notice of them. Of course, they were able to do this thanks to an added distraction...

"Excuse me!" Randamu shouted loudly at the guards. "Did I hear you boys right? Are you daring to question the direct orders of Lord Uragi?! Or Taka?!"

One of the guards, the Chūnin, suddenly got a confused look on his face. "Taka? What are you talk—"

"UGH!"

The second guard's words were cut short as the two guards standing behind him fell to the floor. Sakura and Karin had seen to that. The two guards they had knocked out were holding weapons in their hands which, had the kunoichi's not acted sooner, they clearly would have used to kill their own coworker. Clearly, from the second guard's reaction, he was the only one of the four who was only here because of his job and was _not_ a part of the Taka conspiracy.

"Hey!" the first guard shouted, instantly grabbing his weapon. He never got to get his weapon out though as he was instantly knocked down by a sweeping leg kick by Sasuke. As soon as he hit the floor, Randamu pulled out one of his swords and held it against the guard's throat.

"Keys! Now!" Naruto demanded of the guard.

"I don't have them. Even if I did, I'll **never** betray my order!"

"Have it your way."

Naruto then turned to Randamu who pressed the blade deeper into the guards throat, enough to successfully draw blood...And then the missing-nin, with ninja speed, pulled the sword away, flipped it in the air, caught it with his gloved hands, and knocked the guard out with a powerful blow to the head with the pummel.

This just left the innocent, unknowing guard left standing. Totally confused by what had just transpired and also a little terrified of what she had just gotten into, the young guard got out her kunai and held it in striking position.

"Freeze! Don't move!" the Chūnin shouted. "Make one move and I'll stop you!"

"Lower you weapon," Naruto commanded.

"You don't give orders to me! I answer to the Hokage!"

"Exactly."

The Chnin felt her guard soften at what the masked Anbu traitor had just said. "W-What did you say?"

The mysterious Anbu paused only briefly before continuing in the most calm, warm voice he could muster. "Young lady, you don't realize it but we've met before. In fact I've known you since you were just a little girl—"

"You know **nothing** about me! I am—"

"Mirai Sarutobi. Chūnin rank. Daughter of Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yūhi. Your grandfather was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage." He smiled beneath his mask. "I knew him well, he was kind of like a grandfather to me too."

The teenage kunoichi felt her resolve lighten even more as her eyes widened in surprise. "You...You knew my grandfather?"

"Yes. I'm also very close friends with your cousin, Konohamaru."

"You are? _How?_"

"Because I trained him. And now he's training my son."

That was it! That was the last clue the girl needed. the true identity of the masked stranger before her know suddenly became clear like a ton of bricks!

"Lord...Lord Seventh...?"

Smiling warmly, Naruto removed his mask, revealed his true identity with his bright blonde hair and those bright blue eyes and whisker marks that could not be mistaken for anyone else.

Overcome with shock, Mirai dropped her kunai to the ground and got on one knee and bowed her head. "Oh my...My Lord! Please forgive me! I did not know—"

"You have nothing to apologize for Mirai. You were just doing your duty. Actually, it warms my heart to know that you haven't been brought into this plot."

The girl raised her head in confusion. "Plot?"

Naruto nodded to his friends who promptly removed their own masks as well.

"Lady Sakura!" Mirai bowed in respect again. "M'lady, please forgive—"

"Apology accepted Mirai, thank you."

She looked at the other two ninja's that were a part of this company, recognize them as Sasuke Uchiha and his wife, despite not really knowing them well due to how rarely their family chose to remain in the village.

"Mirai," Naruto spoke up to get her attention, "I know you must have heard some awful things about Sakura and my, but I give you my word that none of them are true."

She paused, as if she were searching deep within herself, before answering back. "I know. I think I've always known my Lord. I always thought it was bizarre that such a good man could suddenly betray his village the way they say you did. I even questioned Captain Odaku about it." She looked straight at her Hokage again as she rose from her position. "But sir, please, what is really going on?"

Naruto traded looks to Sakura, Sasuke and Karin before continuing. "Mirai, you've been deceived. We _all_ have. Konoha and _all_ the great shinobi villages have been secretly infiltrated by a shadowy conspiracy called Taka."

"Taka?" Mirai found her eyes immediately turning towards Sasuke.

"It's not what you're thinking; my wife and I aren't involved."

"But—?"

"It's a long story."

"Mirai," Naruto spoke again, "Uragi is secretly a Taka leader. He has been ever since he came back to the village after the war. He's been plotting against us and planting double agents in our village ever since! He's been planning to collected to seven chakra gems to try to take over the whole world. He's even found a way to fully resurrect the dead as brainwashed servants to his very will!"

The girl was utterly stunned, almost unable to take all of this in. "H-How do you know all of this?"

"...Because Taka sent my own parents out to kill me...and they have my master and my old friend as well."

Mirai seemed almost too scared to ask her next question. "W-What about my father? Or my grandfather?"

Naruto could only answered truthfully. "I don't know."

Mirai hung her head, deep in thought, and fuming with anger at the lie she had been living ever since this mess began.

"Mirai," Sakura spoke, "I know this is a lot to take in, but please, if there is anything you can do, please help us."

Mirai searched her soul, her heart for the right course of action, and that decision did not come to her with too much effort. Bowing her head again, she turned to her Hokage and bowed in respect.

"I am at your service, Lord Seventh."

The blonde jinchūriki smiled warmly. "At ease Mirai. And please...call me Naruto."

The girl actually blushed, "Arigato...Naruto."

"Hey!" Sasuke interrupted rudely, "this is all well and good, but we still came here to free our friends."

"Oh!" Mirai exclaimed, "I have the keys to their cells right here."

""Hey wait a minute!" Karin spoke up at last, having been listening to the drama unfold in curiosity this whole time. "What rank are you anyway dear?"

"Chūnin. Why?"

"Why in heck would Uragi choose to assign a Chūnin to guard duty of _this_ many high-level shinobi prisoners?"

"He most likely meant it as a test," Sasuke reasoned. "He probably wanted to see is a Sarutobi, especially one her age, could be trusted to follow orders of her own accord and maybe even worthy of being brought into Taka's fold at a later time."

Mirai didn't say anything more, but inside she could been her stomach turning at the thought of almost allowing herself to be used so cruelly.

"Here, she said, "let me unlock to door and we'll get the others out."

"Arigato Mirai," Sakura smiled. "After we get our friends, you'd better—"

"Wait!"

The company stopped what they were doing at the sound of the girl's voice. She turned to Naruto to ask her one more, desperate question. "Naruto, these people, Taka...Did...Did they do something to my mother?"

Naruto was momentarily surprised by the question, but he was quick to answer it. "Yes. They locked her in prison with her peers for helping my daughter and her friends escape the village."

Tears were already forming in the girl's eyes...

"But she was able to escape with the others and got out. I saw her."

"You did?! Where?!"

"In Suna, a few days ago, when all of us were captured and brought back here. I'm not sure where she is right now, but wherever that is she's got the backup of several powerful Jōnin and some very promising Genin at her back."

Hearing that made Mirai feel a lot better! She dried her tears and got herself focused again. "Alright then, let me see if I can find the right key."

* * *

"'Take something from me?'" Sarada questioned, trying to break free of Kakashi's hold of her. "What are you talking about sensei?"

"Don't bother trying to hide it young lady. I know that your Aunt Sakura trusted you with the chakra gem."

The Uchiha girl's eyes widened as she suddenly got very, very nervous. "W-What are you talking about?"

"I told you to stop denying it." The retired kage sighed. "Sarada, I know that you're trying to hide it to protect Shinachiku, but it's obvious to me that the gem is having a _very_ serious effect on you! Its already doing to you _exactly_ what it did to him!"

She finally yanked her hand free of the old man's grasp. "So what if it does?! At lest one of us will be able to keep a cool head. Besides—"

"Besides what?" Konohamaru putted in.

"Besides, we both found it! It belongs just as much to me as it does to him. It's mine. The power is _mine!_"

"I think you've held onto that gem quite long enough!" Kakashi shouted.

Sarada growled, "You want it all for yourself don't you?!"

"**SARADA UCHIHA!** Don't take me as some filthy begger asking for power or wealth he can barely comprehend! I am NOT trying to rob you...!"

The old, masked ninja let out a fury he had not unleashed in a long time,. His voice was actually loud enough to terrify the young girl. It was almost as though he grew several feet right before her eyes, looming over her like a powerful force...

...But then he relaxed again as he came back down to a calm level. "...I'm trying to help you."

That was all it took. That was enough for the girl to open her eyes, to see the truth. this thing, this accursed thing that she was burdened with, it was destroying her. It would destroy both of them unless something was done with it soon.

And so Sarada, heir to the mighty Uchiha clan, broke down and cried into the old ninja's arms.

"Its alright, its alright," Kakashi hugged her to calm the girl down, before letting go to look her in the eyes. "I promised that I would look out for you , and Shinachiku. That I would get you both ready for the battle that's to come. And I will. But for right now I need you to trust me. Let it go."

The girl dried her tears as she admitted to the truth. "You're right Kakashi-sensei...I'm sorry."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the object in question, the glowing red stone, the Power Gem. But as she proceeded to had the object in question over to her current teacher, she felt a familiar presence to the side of her. Turning in it's direction, the girl was horrified at who it was.

Standing up, staring at them, awakened from his slumber, was none other than Shinachiku Uzumaki. His eyes were glued to the glowing gems, seemingly entranced by its crimson radiance.

The boy's eyes then turned to the girl, his partners, his friend, the one who had been keeping it from him this whole time...and he looked very, _very_ angry!

* * *

Oh boy! This doesn't look good!

So now Shinachiku knows that Sarada's go the chakra gem, and we've already seen what it's done to him and what's its currently doing to her...Yeah, this might end badly!

The title "Deceptions" is a collective reference to all of the trickery and lying our characters are doing in this chapter. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Karin are deceiving the security in the prison by disguising themselves as one of their own. Mirai had been deceived (as has all of Konoha) by the lies Taka had implemented to seize control, and, most nervous of all, Sarada has been deceiving Shinachiku because she has been hiding the chakra gem right under his nose this whole time.

Besides that, I want to address the scene where Sakura and Karin kiss the two guards to get into the control room. As I hope I've made perfectly clear, it was just an act! Part of my goal with this chapter was, now that the characters don't have access to their chakra, to show Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Karin doing some more traditional tactic like real ninja's would use. That includes spying, sneaking around, and traveling in disguise. As the story took shape, I realized that it felt a lot like a spy mission and I actually liked that approach to things. How often do you get to see these guys sneak around an enemy base in disguise instead of just punching things head on and blowing stuff up?

Anyway, if you know your spy movies, you would know that one of the most recurring clichés is that the spy will charm and/or seduce the villain of the opposite gender to get what they need. James Bond hits on every woman he meets, and we all know the femme fetale archetype. Sakura and Karin were merely tapping into that convention purely to get their mission done, and as I made clearly they did NOT enjoy doing it!

Also, the definition of _kunoichi_ is a female ninja. Think about what a female ninja would most likely be trained to do in ancient times. As non-PC as is may seem today, they likely would have been taught to use they feminine whiles and sexuality to their advantage against male opponents. In the Chun-Li vs. Mai Shiranui episode of "Death Battle" Wiz and Boomstick discuss Mai's very revealing outfit and Wiz explains that she wears it for kunoichi, which he defines as "a female ninja method of sexually distracting a foe before striking."

Anyway, they did it to get what they needed, nothing more, and the guys, while naturally upset, forgave them. I hope that clears it up.

On a more positive note, our heroes now have a new ally in their struggle in the form of Mirai Sarutobi. She is a character I was planning on getting involving in the story for a long time but it never felt right until now. I first hinted at her distrust of Naruto and Sakura being labeled fugitives way back in Chapter 9, and now we see her part (hopefully) grow from here. One of my primary influences when I began this story was "Captain America: Civil War" and I always saw Mirai fulfilling the Agent 13 role from that film; not a hugely important character but a strong, competent one that proves she has our hero's back with things go down.

Sarada's arc in this chapter was clearly inspired by "The Lord of the Rings" with her increasing obsession with the chakra gem. Specifically, the scene at the end between her and Kakashi was directly inspired by a scene from "The Fellowship of the Ring," in which Gandalf tries to get Bilbo to give up the Ring before he leaves the Shire, similarly to what Kakashi does here. Kakashi's furious outburst, where he symbolically seems to grow in size and even the exacts words of dialogue, are directly based on what Gandalf does to scare Bilbo and snap him out of the grip the Ring has on him.

As for the other major plot line, Naruto and friend's sneaking around the prison in disguise was an obvious homage to "Star Wars" (or "Episode IV: A New Hope" if you prefer). The heroes disguising themselves to blend in among the enemy is a classic trope, but like most people, the first example I always think of is where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo famously disguise themselves as stormtroopers to sneak around the Death Star. They even escort Chewbacca to their destination not unlike how Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Karin are escorting Randamu.

By the way, did you notice that Naruto's friends are all being held in Detention Block AA-23? That's the same detention block where Princess Leia was held prisoner aboard the Death Star! What can I say? With "The Force Awakens" a mere thirteen days away from the time of this chapter's posting, my excitement is at a fever pitch right now! May the Force be with us all!

I think that's all I have for this time. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I thank you all once again for you patience and your support.

Until next time, see ya!


	38. Chapter 36--Under the Influence

What's up you guys! This is thesaiyanjedi here with the newest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

So, so sorry for keeping you guys hanging for so long, but the truth is that things have been a little bit hectic in my life lately and I've been having a bit of a writer's block when it comes to this story. I know that's probably no excuse, but I hope you all can understand and learn to forgive me.

Anyway, welcome to the first chapter of the new year! I'm not sure its the best chapter I've ever written (in fact I feel pretty certain of that), but I hope you guys can enjoy it anyway. And if you o, please let me know.

With all of that said, lets gets to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 36: Under the Influence**

"Where did you get that?"

Sarada could tell the voice in the boy's voice and rose her hands in defense. "Shina, listen to me—"

_"Where did you get it?!"_

The girl was taken aback. "Your mom trusted me to hold onto it. She was afraid of what might happen if you saw it again."

"So you lied to me."

"Weren't you listening?! I just said—"

"SHUT UP!"

The girl actually looked hurt, for a moment. After that, she narrowed her eyes in disgust. "See, this is why I hid it from you! Its affecting you! Its affecting _both_ of us!"

"She's telling the truth Shinachiku," Kakashi spoke up. "I understand that you two have to keep the gem out of Taka's hands, but there has to be a way to do so without destroying yourselves."

Shinachiku could only listen and glare. He said nothing as his eyes drifted back to the glowing object in his old friend's hand. Its crimson radiance escaping through her fingers. The power. The power to destroy cities. The power of a god in the palm of your hand.

Sarada could clearly feel where the boy's eyes were drifting and she suddenly got very defensive. Her grip tightened on the gem as she coldly glared at her old friend.

Eyes reflected red, either with power or merely with the lust for power, as both Genin, consciously or unconsciously, reach for their weapon's pouches to pull out their kunai...

Konohamaru panicked. "Kids! Wait!"

Her sensei's words awoke something in the girl. The redness in her eyes disappeared and she managed to come back to her senses again, in spite of the gem still being held within her hands.

"Shinachiku! Wait!"

It was too late. The boys screamed as he threw a kunai straight at the her head. Sarada barely dodged the blade, loosing a lock of her hair in the process.

Dropping all pretense, Sarada was forced to tuck the gem back into her pocket as she got out her own kunai and charged her old friend. Both children and threw rapid punches and kicks at the other. Shinachiku tried to use his pressure point techniques to cut her off, but Sarada was ready for him this time and dodged the blows with ease. Sarada got out another kunai and tried to slash the boy right across the faces growling in fury while doing so, but Shinachiku grabbed the blade an tossed it away before anything further could be done with it.

Shinachiku then got out his own kunai, the one his uncle had giving him for his birthday, and started slashing at his friend like a madman. Sadada then caught his arm and punched him right in the face, square in the nose actually.

"AAAGGH!" Shinachiku recoiled from the clean shot as Sarada tried once again to the get him to focus.

"Shina! Listen to me! You're going _crazy!_ This isn't you! Stop for a second and look at what you are doing! _Please!_"

The boy could feel something, something coming back into focus within his own mind. It was like he had woken up again from a familiar dream, one that he had once before back in the woodland that lay between the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Sound.

It was a voice that got him to focus again. _Her_ voice.

The red flash disappeared from his pupils and the boy was back to his normal self once again. "Wh-What? What happened?"

Kakashi folded his arms and scowled. "You found out where the Chakra Gem was and lost yourself again, _that's_ what happened."

"Shina," Konohamaru added, "you attacked Sarada to get the gem back."

A wave of horrible guilt washed over the boy in that moment. He could only stare in horror at the girl, who looked back at him not in anger or resentment, but it pity. After all, she too had her taste of the Chakra Gem's power and she had aloud it to consumer her as well.

That is why she was not surprised when she saw Shinachiku Uzumaki, one of the brightest, most talented boy's she had ever known, suddenly break down and cry right in front of her. She could hear his sobbing as tears of his own self-guilt fell upon the grass.

No one did anything for several seconds, the two Jōnin not knowing shat to say to their young pupil in this the highly distressful moment.

And so they were not the ones to do anything. Instead, Sarada Uchiha came forward, fell to her knees, and wrapped the boy in a tight hug. He was not able to resist. He wrapped his own arms around her as he cried into her shoulder.

Over and over again he kept whispering into her ear "I'm sorry."

Her response was a simple, "Me too."

Kakashi and Konohamaru merely looked upon the scene in pity. They knew that they both needed this, they needed this release, this closeness, this outlet for understanding and forgiveness...But they also knew that unless something was done then, for all they knew, one of these children was going to end up killing the other one to get a hold of the gem. Or worse yet, _neither_ of them would be able to overcome a Chakra Gem's power...

Kakashi looked down at their feet. Sarada had allowed to Chakra Gem to drop onto the grass, seemingly forgotten (or perhaps discarded in either fear or disgust). The gem was only barely glowing, and even Kakashi, level headed though he was, could sense the great power that laid within.

Looking to the young Sarutobi standing beside him, they both nodded in agreement. _Something_ had to be done.

* * *

"Yes! I've got it!"

Mirai cheered to herself as she heard the click of the lock, letting her know that she had at last found the correct key to open the cell block.

"Great work Mirai," Naruto said as he put his mask back on, his wife and friends doing the same. "Now let go inside and get our friends out of there."

Mirai nodded as she opened the door, allowing the five of them (Randamu was ordered to wait outside and stand guard) into the block where four occupied prison cells were inside. Just as Sakura and Karin had seen on the monitor in the control room, Shikamaru, Temari and Kankurō were all sharing a cell together, while the cell across from them held Sai, Ino, Chōji and Kurai. Hinata, Kiba and Shino were in the third cell, and Lee and Tenten had the fourth cell.

The sudden presence of the young Chūnin and the four Anbu alerted the relaxed ninjas into a sense of trepidation.

"What do you want?" Kiba snorted.

"Hey!" one of the Anbu spoke back in a familiar voice. "Is that any way to talk back to your Hokage?"

The Inuzuka clammed up at the sound of his friend's voice, too surprised and, frankly, too confused to make a snappy comeback. Kiba's wife on the other hand...

"Naruto!" Hinata cried out as she leaped to the prison bars.

"Shh!" One of the other Anbu shushed to Hyūga princess and all of the others who were now standing up to see if what they all thought was going on was really true.

"Naruto? Sasuke?" Kankurō questioned. "How in the hell—?"

"It's a long story, we'll explain later," Sasuke cut the puppet master off a bit rudely. "Right now everybody stand back while Mirai unlocks the bars."

"Mirai?" Ino questioned in surprise. "What are you doing here dear?"

Mirai's father had been their former sensei, so ever since Asuma's death Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji had sort of become surrogate aunts and uncles to the young girl growing up, having the kindness to check in on her and Kurenai when they could (particularly during her infant and academy years) and even offer the girl a couple of lessons here and there.

"Hi Ino-san," Mirai greeted with respect. "Uragi stationed me here on guard duty with a group of Anbu that were just outside."

"What?" Chōji reacted in surprise. "But you're only a Chūnin and we're A-rank prisoners?"

Shikamaru, as usual two steps ahead of everyone else, quickly rationed out the situation. "Uragi probably wanted to see if a member of the Sarutobi clan could be molded into Taka's services or at least follow orders blindly without ever becoming the wiser."

"Yeah, I reasoned the same thing," Sasuke stated simply.

Mirai proceeded to open each of the bars as their friends filed out of their cells and gathered around their disguised leader and his friends.

"Sakura?" Ino questioned one of the two Anbu that clearly had the physique of a woman.

"Hey Ino," Sakura said as she let her best friend have a peak under her mask. Ino reacted by giving her best friend an affectionate hug.

"Naruto! Sakura!" Lee proclaimed a bit too loudy.

"SHH!" Sasuke shushed the green beast. "Shut up you idiot! Do you want the whole prison to hear us?!"

"Hey!" Tenten snapped, "don't talk to my husband like that!"

"It's okay," Karin stepped in between them. "Sasuke just shot his mouth off without thinking is all." She turned to her husband and lifted her mask, showing him her scowling face. "Isn't that _right_ Sasuke?"

The Uchiha sighed and gave in. "Yes dear. I'm sorry Lee."

"So Naruto," Shino spoke up, "what's the plan for getting out of here?"

"You guys stick with us as we get you all out of here. As Hokage I know some of the passageways through this place that should get us through the doors unnoticed. If we're spotted just act natural and pretend that the four of us are Anbu escort transferring your to another wing under Uragi's orders."

"That's it?" Shikamaru questioned. "Naruto, they're going to report in to confirm that order and when they do—"

"Let us worry about that." The Seventh Hokage turned to the young girl who had already risked so much to help them. "Mirai, thank you so much for what you've done for us, but I think it's best that you get out of here. Report to the warden and tell him that you have a personal matter to deal with back home and let him know that you will be clocking out for the day."

"As you wish my lor—I mean Naruto. But what should I do then?"

He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "For now, just play along with Taka's game. When the time comes, you'll know when to reveal yourself and stand up for what's right."

The girl nodded in understanding. "Yes sir. But what if security sees me walking out of this cell block so soon before all of you leave?"

"Don't you worry about that," Karin explained. "Sakura and I have already been to the control room and the guard on duty is knocked out thanks to our friend."

Temari raised a eyebrow. _"Friend?"_

Sakura did her best to brush it off. "Oh its a a long story, don't worry about it." She turned back to Mirai. "Now dear, you go on home and leave the rest to us, alright."

"Yes m'lady," she said as she bowed in respect to the Hokage's wife.

As the girl was leaving, Naruto called back out to her. "Mirai?"

The girl stopped and turned back to her true leader. "Yes?"

Naruto smiled. "You're mother and father would be proud of you."

Mirai smiled back, actually blushing a little bit, before she nodded again and headed out of the cell block to report to the warden. 'Good luck Naruto, Sakura, everyone. I'll be waiting for the signal when its time to take our village back.'

Back inside the cell block, the group of sixteen had waited a good three minutes before their leader decided it was time to make their getaway.

"Okay, everybody follow me outside," Naruto signaled as he started heading back out the door.

"Wait!" Temari shouted. "We can't escape yet. Some of us aren't accounted for."

The blonde stopped in his tracks and looked back at his company. Counting heads, he realized that, indeed, there were a couple of notable allies missing, one in particular that distressed him. "Where's Gaara?"

"We don't know," Kankurō answered. "My brother was locked up with Temari, Shikamaru and I before Anbu came in an took him out of our cell. They haven't brought him back since."

Naruto was surprised. "Why didn't he try to resist?"

"Use your brain you moron!" Sasuke snapped. "His chakra was blocked off just like the rest of ours had been. There wasn't much he could do without risk of being overpowered and besides, he probably didn't want to make things any worse for the rest of them."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. But we've still got to find him before the Summit starts."

As her husband and cousin were talking, Karin got another look at the group and realized something else. "Hey wait, where are Suigetsu and Jūgo?"

That got Sasuke turning back to the crowd as well, making him realize that, indeed, his other two teammates were missing. "What happened? Did Anbu take them away too?"

"We do not know," Sai explained. "Neither of them were even incarcerated with us, so we have no way of knowing what has become of them."

Sakura turned to her husband. "Naruto, we need to find the three of them before we make our escape."

Kiba spoke up defiantly, "And I'm not leaving this place until I find wherever they're keeping Akamaru!"

Naruto nodded once again. "Alright come on, we're going to need to cover some ground as fast as we can in this big place." He then stood before his friends and stepped back into Hokage mode as he began giving orders. "Split up into teams of three. Sakura, you take Kiba, Hinata, Ino and Shino with you to try to find Akamaru. Sasuke, you, Karin and Randamu take Lee and Tenten with you to go find your teammates—"

"RANDAMU?!" A number of voices all screamed incredulously all at once.

On cue, the missing nin with the mouth poked his head into the doorway leading into the cell block. "Did someone call my name?" He then saw all of the freed prisoners and waved enthusiastically. "Oh! Hey guys!"

"Naruto!" Kiba growled in anger. "What the hell is that bastard doing here?!"

Naruto sighed long and hard. "Relax Kiba, he's on our side."

Chōji was utterly confused, like everybody else. "But I thought back in Suna—?"

"Don't ask about it," Sasuke interrupted. "You really don't want to know the story."

"Why? Because it's long?"

Sakura answered that question. "No, because its completely _stupid!_"

All of the others could only trade looks to one another in confusion before they felt they needed to just go along with it (under protest).

"As I was saying," Naruto spoke again, "Sakura is leading the first team helping Kiba and Hinata find Akamaru. Ino and Shino, you two go with them. Sasuke, you, Karin and Randamu are going to go look for your two teammates, and you're taking Lee and Tenten with you. Sai, you, Shikamaru and Chōji are coming with me, Temari and Kankurō. We're going after Gaara. Sakura, Sasuke, Karin and I are wearing Anbu disguises, so if anyone spots you just pretend you are prisoners being transferred via armed escort. Any questions?"

There was a slight pause as everyone took in the orders they were given and split off into their respective teams.

"Alright then," the Orange Hokage proclaimed. "Let's move out!"

* * *

"Milady, how much longer do you need?"

"Just a little bit more Shizune. Just keep standing watch."

Tsunade and Shizune were going incognito at yet another nearby village's hospital. Sure they didn't exactly have the best equipment or facilities in the world, certainly not compared the Leaf Village, but it was going to have to do the job until they got back to the village in time for the Summit. It was imperative that they succeed in replicating the antidote to Taka's serums before they made it home. The sample they had with them wasn't going to be enough and there was no telling how of the stuff they were going to need.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune said, "I think the doctors are coming!"

"Damn it!"

Acting quickly, the Slug Sannin grabbed her samples and the works she had managed to accomplish, and she and her old pupil were forced to used the ninja stealth (or rather what remained of it at their age) to sneak out the window before a group of doctors came in to perform their own work.

They had managed to make it out of the facility with none the wiser, and then proceeded to head back to the inn the company was staying in again. Hanami was waiting there and they needed to check back in with her anyway.

"What kind of progress would you say we've made milady?" Shizune asked. "Will we be able to produces enough antidote in time?"

"I honestly have no idea," Tsunade answered with a huge headache. "All I know is that if we have and couple dozen samples of the antidote with us and that's only going to do so much for us. If we loose that, then there's no telling what we'll do."

Shizune hung her head. "How do you think Hanami's doing?"

"I'm sure she's fine. We'll go back to the room and speak with her."

"She has been recovering nicely though."

"Yes, she has."

Shizune smiled. "It feels good to see her in high spirit again."

The old woman with the face of a twenty-something smiled back. "Yes, it is."

When the two women got back to their room, they opened the door to find Hanami sitting on the bed watching television, some sort of children's cartoon.

"Hi Hanami," Shizune said in the most affectionate, motherly way she could. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she smiled.

"Can you still focus your chakra?" Tsunade questioned.

"Yep." Hanami got up off the bed and closed her eyes as he put her hands in a meditative pose. After a couple of seconds, the two older women could feel the girl's chakra spike, gradually growing higher and higher and at a smooth rate.

"Impressive," Tsunade said. "You seem to have a pretty could control over your own chakra."

"Like my mommy?"

The former kage chuckled, "Yeah, like your mommy."

The little girl put on a bright smiled that lit up the whole room. What was it about this girl that gave her the power the brighten up everyone's mood just by being herself.

But no sooner had their mood brightened up than is suddenly became awkward as the door opened once again. Into the room stepped their other roommate, a certain bifocaled girl with raven hair and who's aura gave off a dour essence.

"Hi Sarada," Hanami chimed up in glee, happy to see her friend...even if there was a clear tinge of jealousy since she has been spending so much time with her big brother.

"Hey," she said simply.

Shizune quickly picked up on the girl's attitude. "Sarada, is something wrong?"

"No."

Tsunade, on the other hand, was not nearly as reserved or subtle as her old apprentice. "Sarada Uchiha, what is the matter?"

"Nothing alright! Ugh!" The girl merely sat there on the bed with her head in her hands until at last she spoke up to confess. "Shinachiku found out I was keeping the chakra gem."

The Sannin's eyes widened, _"What!"_

"Did something happen to my oniichan?"

Sarada did not want to say anything more with the boy's sister in the room, she doubted the girl would be able to take it. And is seemed that the other two women could sense it.

"Shizune, do you think you two could give us a moment please?"

"Yes milady," Shizune turned back toe girl and held out her hand. "Hanami, how about you and I go outside for a little while and see if we can get some candy?"

The seven-year-old gave a curious, nervous glance at the other girl sitting beside her before she nervously said, "Okay." Getting off the bed and taking the older woman's hand, she got one more look of suspicion at the young Uchiha girl before the door closed on them.

Now alone in the room, Tsunade sat down next to the girl and got down to business. "Now, tell me what happened."

Sarada sighed aloud. "We were training as usual and I was holding onto the gem and I might have..." she shifted her eyes nervously, "...gotten a little carried away."

The old woman had a pretty good idea what that meant, but she played dumb so she could hear the rest of the story. "Go on."

"Kakashi-sensei got really angry with me and told me to come back here, but he ordered me to give him the Chakra Gem first."

"And did you?"

"Not at first. But...well, lets just say I hadn't realized how scary Kakashi-sensei can be when he gets angry." She paused as if expecting a chuckle from the woman, which never came, so she awkwardly carried on. "Anyway, he convinced me to give it to him, but then Shinachiku woke up and saw I had it."

"And what did he do?"

"He attacked me."

"He did _WHAT?!_"

"I know. He attacked me with the exact same fury I had a moment before. We fought, but I got him to come to his senses. And then..."

"And then what?"

"And then he felt so ashamed that he started crying."

Tsunade could tell the girl's tone change as she confessed that. Touching her face, she turned her head to face hr an got a clear look and Sarada's eyes. They were puffy and bloodshot, and there were the remnant of tears streaks that had stained her cheeks.

"It seems he wasn't the only on who needed to cry."

Sarada did not say anything in response, her silence and discomfort did all the talking for her.

"Sarada," Tsunade spoke seriously, "where is the Chakra Gem now?"

"Kakashi-sensei and Knonhamaru-sensei have it. They sealed it inside a scroll so that neither of us can remain exposed to it."

Tsunade nodded her head. "I think that's for the best. You two needed to get away from that thing or else it would have been a disaster."

"I suppose so..." Sarada appeared glum but then she suddenly got serious herself. "I'll promise you this though milady, neither Shinachiku nor myself will ever be taken in by that Chakra Gem ever again. If we are...I don't even want to think about what might happen..."

* * *

"Why did Naruto have to pair me up with you?"

Sasuke was groaning in annoyance at his current teammate, a certain bowl-haired Jōnin with big, bushy eyebrows and a garish green jumpsuit.

"Friend Sasuke, our brave leader Naruto knows what he is doing, and as your true Hokage, you are in no position to be questioning his orders."

The Uchiha merely huffed. "Whatever."

Karin leaned in to her husband and whispered to him. "You know what I think? I think Naruto's just trying to get back at you after hearing how you bad mouthed Lee earlier, _and_ that time back in the Land of Whirlpools."

Sasuke whispered back. "Well can you blame me?! I mean, have you listened to the way this guy talks about youth every couple of seconds?! He's even more annoying then the dobe himself is!"

"We can hear you whispering Sasuke," Tenten said flatly.

Sasuke, wanting to just put the issue down quietly, swallowed his pride and apologized. "Gomen Lee."

"Apology accepted!" Lee said with, as usual, _way_ too much enthusiasm.

"Oh I don't think its that bad," Randamu said, "I think this is kind of fun."

"Why do you say that?" Lee questioned.

"Because the writer couldn't think of anything better for me to say, that's why. Hell, I don't even think he had any real clue why he slit our teams up the way he did either."

Everybody stopped dead in their tracks as they tried to process whatever the heck their formally traitorous teammate had just said. Glancing at one another and not being able to come up with anything, they decided they were better off just letting it go and moving on.

"So how do we know we can trust you anyway?" Tenten asked with narrow eyebrows.

"Well, do you two have a 70,000,000,000 ryo bounty on your heads?"

"No."

"Then you know you can trust me."

"Shh!"

Karin quieted the others down as she thought she heard a noise coming from one of the corridors up ahead.

Lee strained his ears to focus in. "I hear something too."

"Come on then," Sasuke ordered. "Randamu, get your katana ready."

"YAY! Finally I get to the cut people up!"

While their masked friend unsheathed his weapons the they ran and quickly and quietly as they could with their ninja speed down the corridor where the heard the noise. They ran and ran as they heard the noise that began to sound ore and more clearly like a man whimpering in pain.

"That's Suigetsu's voice! I'd know it anywhere!" Karin exclaimed.

"Then we haven't much time!" Sasuke stated. "Hurry!"

The team of five ran down the stairwells of the prison until the finally came to a darkly lit corner of the prison where there was a leaking faucet that had already leaked so bad that a gigantic puddle was on the floor. In the middle of the water puddle was a familiar purple-clad ninja with straight white hair and sharp teeth that resembled a shark's.

"Suigetsu!" Karin went up to her seemingly injured teammate, removing her mask to let him see her face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't panic over me four eyes."

"Hey!" the woman protested in an over-the-top manner, "don't you dare talk to me like that you jerk! Don't forget that we're your only hope f getting you out of here!"

"Suigetsu," Sasuke interrupted in a tone of seriousness and suspicion as he removed his mask. "What happened? What did Taka do to you?"

The Swordsman of the Mist looked up at his friend and leader and replied, "They gave me something."

"What?"

"Something that they'd taken away from me. And now they'd given it back."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "In exchange for what...?"

* * *

"How much further is it?"

Sakura did her best to put her current teammate's growing impatience out of mind as she kept walking. She couldn't blame him, Akamaru has been his partner since childhood after all.

"I promise you Kiba, there is a special wing of up ahead where Anbu locks up animal companions for dangerous shinobi criminals. We're almost there."

"Oh, I just hope Akamaru's okay," Hinata said in worry.

"I do too Hinata," Ino said trying to comfort her friend.

"The sooner we make it to the kennel wing, the sooner we will know for sure," Shino stated.

The five of them walked on and on for several more minutes, Sakura relying on her knowledge of the prison's layout to get them to the right location. They kept walking until they heard a faint sound.

"Hey!" Ino exclaimed. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Yes, it sounded like.." Hinata smiled, "...like a dog barking."

"Akamaru!"

Kiba ran ahead of the pack to the source of the barking. Nothing was going to stand in the way of him finding his partner.

"Kiba wait up!" Sakura called out. "Naruto gave up orders to stick together!"

Who was Sakura kidding? This was Kiba and Akamaru she was dealing with here. Nothing was going to stand in the way of those two coming back together again. And so the four to them ran after their dog-faced companion and he ran closer and closer to the source of the animal noises.

Eventually they did succeed in tracking down the source. It was a coming from a room labeled "kennel on the overhead plaque.

"Hang on boy! I'm coming!"

Kiba, with a mighty yell, used all of the strength he had to kick the door in. It wasn't quite enough so the other had to pitch in. Of course, if Sakura still ha access to her chakra network then she could have easily done this herself, but that was their sense of luck right now.

With their combined force, the door did burst in, an Kiba ran in to the room to see the old dog whimpering inside a cage. Even more degrading, the poor animal had a muzzle on him.

"Akamaru!" Kiba exclaimed as he ran up to the cage. "What did those bastard do to you boy?"

The dog merely whimpered in sadness.

"It okay Akamaru, we're here for you now," Hinata said as she came up to the cage herself.

"We need to find the key to open that lock," Shino stated.

The little reunion with the dog was enough of a distraction to keep the ninjas from noticing a large, intimidating figure stepping in from the shadows, his aura projecting an suppressed and terrifying anger...

* * *

"How are we going to find him anyway?"

Shikamaru turned to his brother-in-law and outlined his strategy. "Most likely they are keeping Gaara in the northwest wing of the prison. It the most high-security section of the prison besides where they were keeping us or Naruto, Sasuke and the their wives. If they wanted to segregate the Kazekage from the rest o the herd then it would make much sense to keep in a block so too close from the rest of us."

Temari listen to her husband's summary in earnest. She was often impressed with Shikamaru's legendary deductive reasoning, but right now she was more concerned with finding her brother and getting themselves out of here.

"Everybody stay close," Naruto ordered. "Like Shikamaru said, the detention block we're going to is probably under high security and without our chakra we are at a disadvantage."

"Indeed," Sai agreed. "No chakra or weapons does make this rescue seem like quite the suicide mission."

Chōji groans at the Anbu captain's grim analogy. "Way to sour the mood Sai."

Naruto shushed the others as he raised his hand. The atmosphere became stale and quiet as their orange-clad leader made hand signs that instructed them to duck into the shadows, which they promptly did. Even without their chakra, they still could make use of their shinobi training, and one of the first rules of being a ninja is that silence and shadow were two of your most essential allies.

The sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor as they saw a small squadron of Anbu marching in single file to another sector of the prison. Their eyes were straight ahead and focused, although one Anbu did stop momentarily to look off to the side as if he may have heard something. But then the Anbu decided to pay no mind to it and continued marching with the others.

The company of six remained hidden for another thirty seconds at least, long enough to feel sure that the Anbu were far enough away that they would not hear them, before they continued on with their present course.

"I believe i might have known some of those men," Sai noted. "I think some of them have served on Anbu duty with me on missions for you Naruto."

"How could you tell?" Chōji questioned. "They were all wearing masks."

"I can tell by their posture and the way they marched. They were clearly among the semi-elite Anbu black ops and I have seen that kind of demeanor common in their like."

"You might be right Sai," Naruto said, "but for the moment I'm just glad that none of them spotted us."

"Even if they did, I'd tear through every last one of them to get my little brother back!" Kankurō proclaimed defiantly.

"Kankurō, don't be foolish!" Temari retorted. "You're at just as much of a disadvantage as the rest of us are."

"I don't care! This is Gaara we're talking about!"

"And you don't think _I_ want to find him too?! Don't forget that it's _my_ son that got left back in Suna to who now what kind of trouble!"

"You mean he's _our_ son," Shikamaru corrected, to which Temari merely gave him a cold glare. "Never mind."

"Yeah," Kankurō said, "and he's also _my_ nephew! And my _niece_ is out there two Temari!"

"Sunako is _our_ niece!"

"You guys shut up!" Naruto snapped. "Arguing like this isn't going to change anything. If we want to find Gaara and fix this mess in time then all of us are going to have to stick together. Got it?!"

The silence that followed was all the answer that he needed. So they kept walking until they heard a groaning sound up ahead. It was a voice the twin siblings could recognize from anywhere.

"GAARA!" Temari and Kankurō cried out as they ran ahead of the others. Naruto signals to Sai, Shikamaru and Chōji to run to catch up with them. When they did, they came to a dark corridor where Gaara lay there, apparently beaten up. e was resting directly under a single hanging light fixture.

"Gaara!" Temari didn't hesitate to go up to her brother, nor did Kankurō. "What did they do to you?"

"T-They attacked me," the former jinchūriki said. "I fought them off as best I could but without my chakra they over powered me." He pointed down the corridor. "They went that way over there."

"Well we're just glad to see you alive old friend," Naruto said with a smile.

Behind Naruto however, Shikamaru was not smiling. Gaara was pointing ahead of them where the Anbu attackers went, but something didn't make sense.

"Gaara?" Shikamaru spoke up. "Forgive me but I'm confused. We jsut saw the squad of Anbu you were talking about on our way towards you. So why are you saying that they went the other way?" He also got a good loook at his brother-in-law himself. "Furthermore, those cuts and bruises seem pretty minor and piss poor, no way severe enough to leave you a heaping mess on the floor? What's going on?"

There was a tense silence all of sudden, even the other two Sand Siblings turned to their brother in confusion. Naruto didn't like to admit it, but after hearing what his adviser had just said it did sound awfully weird, and yes, Gaara really didn't look _that_ badly hurt.

The Kazekage's reaction to the sudden questioning was to narrow his eyEs an slowly reach for his waist. "I really wish you hadn't noticed that brother...SANDSTORM!"

A wave of sand suddenly spurted out of Gaara's gourd, engulfing all of them before they even had a chance to react. Heaps upon heaps of sand covered the six ninja's Gaara's own kin included, in a thick, heavy mass.

More and more and more sand drowned them. They six of them tried to fight it but it was too much. It was too heavy and was getting too hard to breath with all of the sand drenching them.

"SAND COFFIN!"

Gaara proceeded to harden his sand around his own friends and family, all of them passing out in the process. Temari and Kankurō. Tried to reach out to their brother in loving desperation.

"G-Ga-Gaara?! W-WHY?!"

The Kazekage turned to his elder sister coldly. It ws the same deadly coldness she used to remembr from him, back when he was a different man, before he and Naruto ever met. But this time there was something different, something foreign in those cold eyes. The two siblings could see it, and Naruto could as well.

Inside Gaara's eyes was a faint light, a blue light, a light that seemed to portend that their friend and brother's will was currently not his own.

And then there were the final words he said before they all blacked out. Two words that explained everything and filled them all with terror, particularly Naruto.

Gaara's words: "Hail Taka."

* * *

"Suigetsu!" Sasuke said again. "I asked you a question! You said that Taka took something from you and now they'd given it back. What was the price?"

The shark-fanged swordsman suddenly smirked evilly as a faint blue light appeared visible in his eyes for them all to see. "My loyalty."

Suigetsu's body suddenly turned into water, joining the puddle that lay at their feet.

"Look out!" Lee yelled as they tried to move. But dozens of arms made of water held them in place, unable to move. Randamu got his katana's out to try to stab them away but, again, they were water.

Suigetsu himself re-materialized on the other side of the room. He stood beside a large switch, one with a clear labeling on it that said "DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!"

Looking back to his friends again, he made eye contact with his three friends, particularly Sasuke as he got to see the horror on the Uchiha's face when he saw Suigetsu's eyes flash blue once more and he said two words: "Hail Taka."

He flipped the switch. Many volts of electricity flowed through their bodies and they cried out in agony, for five horrible seconds that felt like an eternity. But no sooner had it begun then the switch was flipped again and the torture stopped, causing the five ninjas to fall face first into the water, the blackness overtaking them as they poor, corrupted ally looked down upon them.

* * *

"You shouldn't be here."

Sakura and the others turned to the source of the voice. They were in a battle stance but then relaxed with then saw who it was.

"Jūgo!" Sakura exclaimed in relief. "Thank goodness! Sasuke and Karin were looking for you."

"Jūgo, what happened? How did you get away from Taka?" Ino asked.

"It was a very interesting turn of events," he said coldly.

"You can tell us all about it later," Kiba said. "But right now, could you please help us out! We need to get Akamaru out of this cage."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

The atmosphere instantly got very cold an very nervous as the others stared at their ally. Even Akamaru was getting timid within his cage.

Shino narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "What do you mean by that?"

Hinata got into a defensive pose of her clan's. "Jūgo?"

The tall ninja's eyes flashed blue as his body started to change. His body shape-shifted into a piston fist right before their eyes. "I mean that none of you are leaving here."

Jūgo had said that so coldly...but it was only a momentary coldness as he suddenly attacked them all with the fury of a insane, wild animal. Laughing like a lunatic all the way, Jūgo was like a monster!

He pistoned his fist into Shino, throwing him from one wall into another furiously until the poor Aburame was slammed to the ground unconscious. Ino tried lunging at him, but he morphed his other fist in a massive axe-blade that she was forced to duct, giving him an opening to clobber with his piston fist. Hinata and Kiba both charged him together. Kiba's head -on approach and raw passion quickly leading to his getting taken out, while Hinata's speed and stealth aided her better, until Jūgo was able to grab her leg and knock her to the ground, hitter her in the head with a brutal piston blow that knocked her out!

"Guys!" Sakura yelled in horror. She got into a defensive position. "You take one more step and I swear to—!"

Poor Sakura wasn't even aloud to finish her sentence as Jūgo forms a set of boosters on his back to enhance his speed, making his piston fist impact the poor woman even worse. He laid into her over and over again, laughing manically the whole time. Until, at last, he allowed Sakura to fall to the ground in agony.

With enough strength left to look up before here vision went black, she called out to him, "Why...?"

The tall, orange haired ninja morphed back into his original form, his savage emotions suddenly back in check as that faint blue light appeared in his eyes once again. His response to her filled her with terror as Sakura passed out: "Hail Taka."

* * *

As Gaara of the Sand looked down upon his unconscious friends and family, he gathered his sand and willed it back into his gourd. No sooner had he finished then he could feel the presence of someone approaching him.

"You were correct my lord," Gaara said. "They did manage to escape from their cells after all."

An older man with black hair stepped out of the darkness and approached him. "I should have figured as much. Good thing you and your friends were here to catch them off guard before they ruined things for us."

Uragi turned to face the auburn-haired man. "Remember where your place is Lord Gaara. You and those two of Uchiha's friends are a part of Taka's revolution now." He pulled a familiar glowing blue gem out of his pocket to emphasize his point. "It was only because of your new loyalty to us that we agreed to give you our antidote to our serum so you three could regain access to your chakra networks. Know that we took your abilities from you and gave them back...and we can take them away _again_ just as easily. That, or we can take away your lives. Do I make myself clear Lord Kazekage?"

The hypnotic blue light reflected in the young man's eyes before it vanished and any sense he had before of coming back to his senses vanished. In place of the great, strong, respected leader of Sunagakure was a mere drone, another puppet whose strings were being pulled by Taka.

"Yes my Lord Uragi, I understand."

Uragi nodded as he tucked the gem back into his pocket. "Good. Now lets put these traitors somewhere special. I'm sure our other two friends are already doing the same with the others. After that, I suggest you get yourself some rest Lord Kazekage. After all, I am going to need your enthusiastic support to help sway the others during the Kage Summit..."

* * *

Oh crap! I did it again! Right when you think our heroes are out of one big mess then instead fall into yet _another_ big mess! Even worse, now of good friends Gaara, Suigetsu and Jūgo are currently slaves to Taka's will!

Okay about that ending, let me speak about it in case it wasn't clear. Taka has a serum that can cut off a shinobi's access to their chakra network, yes. But they would be pretty foolish to have not also developed their own antidote to that serum in the event that one of their own should be injected with it...The same kind of antidote that Tsunade and Shizune are working so hard on developing themselves. Food for thought...

On that note, Taka made sure to only gave them the antidote AFTER they used the blue chakra gem to control them.

Also, Sarada says to Tsunade that she hopes that neither of them are ever affected by the chakra gem ever again (i.e. the red one that they're carrying), or else she doesn't want to think about what might happen...Think about what else we saw in this particular chapter and try to guess the foreshadowing there.

Sadly, this chapter was written with no references this time, but I did instead focus on emotional moments, foreshadowing, and still more plot twists. I also took on the challenge of writing action for Suigetsu and Jūgo, two characters whose abilities I admit that I am not as familiar with as some of the other characters in the cast and I mainly determined through research (thank you Narutopedia!). If I got anything wrong, please let me know.

I think that's all I have for this time. Once again, thank you all for your patience, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Until next time, see ya!


	39. Chapter 37--Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure."

So sorry once again for the long delay in this chapter coming out, but thank you once again for all of your patience and your loyalty. I hope this chapter is worth the wait and to all of your liking.

I will say that this chapter is where things finally pick up the pace; you'll understand why by the end of this review.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 37: Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way**

It has been a full two weeks since the children began their training under their new senseis. The entire time, the company continued the long trek back to their home in the Hidden Leaf Village. Kakashi and Tsunade estimated that by the next day they would finally make it back to the front gate, just in time for the Kage Summit.

To say that the kids were getting nervous was an understatement. Soon these kids were all going to have to rise up and face their futures. They had all worked their hardest, crammed in as much knowledge and skill as they could in the precious little time they had left. They all knew that, one way or another, they were the only other ones outside the village who knew the truth about what was happening back home. They were the only ones who knew that their parents weren't the traitors the rest of the world thought they were. And they were the ones who, out of everyone in the world, had the best chance of being able to do something about it.

...Oh yeah, they were nervous all right. But first, everyone was going to need to get some rest and the last village before they made it back.

Stepping into the local inn, Kakashi took the lead and signed them in. The company split off into their rooms as usual. Tsunade and Shizune would share a room with Hanami and Sarada; the Sannin wanted to pay extra special attention to the girl's behavior after she had consoled in her after the 'incident' between her and Shianchiku. In speaking of whom, the boy would once again be sharing a room with his masters Konohamaru and Kakashi. Kurenai took responsibility for Tsuki, Chōchō and Sunako, while Guy bunked with Bagu and Burandon (the latter of whom had become something of a surrogate grandson to the retired ninja...go figure), and Yamato supervised Inojin, Shikadai and Ōkami.

Soon enough, the company were all signed in and Kakashi decided to take them all to the side to make sure they were all clear on the plan. "Alright, as you all know, this will be the last night that all of us will have before we make it back to the Leaf Village. You kids have all worked hard for this and you all know what's depending on you. But now you are going to need to make sure you get plenty of rest to make sure you have all of your strength for whatever is going to come tomorrow."

The former kage stopped to examine the children—no, _shinobi_—that were currently standing in front of him. He could tell that many of them were nervous, uncertain, and even afraid. "I know that none of you kids signed up for this, and I know that you've all had to do a lot of growing up just over these last few days. But I'm afraid fate has chosen to deal us this card and after all, this is the life of a shinobi. But I also know one other thing..."

The kids all stopped to pay attention to the older man, anxious to hear whatever he had to say. "I know that whatever happens, good of bad...you parents would be proud of who." He closed his eyes and smiled beneath his mask. "I know the rest of us are."

Shinachiku took a momentary comfort at his teacher's words, as did Sarada. Burandon gave an overly enthusiastic grin to Guy, who returned it with his signature thumbs up. Ōkami nodded his head to Kurenai in acceptance, as did Bagu, while Tsuki bowed to her teacher in respect. Kurenai smiled, the girl reminded her of Hinata in a lot of ways. Yamato got the same kind of acknowledgement for Yamato.

With all of that said, everyone proceeded to go to their rooms. But before they split up, Shinachiku took his old friend and training partner to the side for a sort talk.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine," Sarada said. "I guess you and I are as ready for this as we'll ever be huh?"

"I guess so..." The boy awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Um...listen, I know I already said this, but I'm _really_ sorry about what happened with the chakra gem—"

"Me too." she responded a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm sorry I had to keep it from you, but you know that I only did it for—"

"I know, I know, you did it for my own good...I guess both of us kind of lost control didn't we?"

"Yeah..."

"By the way, thank you so much again for helping look after Hanami. She's looking so more better now!"

"Oh you're welcome, it was my pleasure Shina."

The atmosphere was awkward, _really_ awkward, as the two kids continued to stand there in one another's presence. Neither one could think of anything else to say and, to be perfectly honest, they were starting to blush since this was the first time in a long time where the two of them had the opportunity to be in each other's company where it didn't involve training or this mission or having their minds fucked with by a magical glowing gem that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

"Um, hey Sarada...?" Shinachiku asked awkwardly.

"Yes?"

"Uh, I, I mean...I was just wondering if, y'know...after all of this is over and we rescue our parents and all if you'd, well..."

"If I'd what?"

Poor Shinachiku was blushing hard; if fact, he almost tugged at his collar. "Well, y'know, if you'd like it if you and me, umm...hung out sometime?"

Now it was the raven-haired girl's turn to blush. "Oh! Um? Sure I guess. Wh-What did you have in mind?"

"Ah, I don't know...Maybe, lunch and a movie or something? Just the two of us?"

"O-Okay, sure." Sarada continued to blush as she failed to realize that she was awkwardly playing with her hair. "I uh...I guess its a date?"

Now the boy really did tug at his collar as small beads of sweat started to appear on his brow. "Yeah...its a d-date."

Time itself seemed to stop as the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl found themselves staring into each other's eyes. Neither one of them knew what was coming over them as each of their eyes closed and they slowly started to lean in closer to once another...

"Shinachiku! What's taking you so long?"

"Sarada! You too!"

Konohamaru and Shizune's voices instantly snapped them out of their trance. Their eyes snapped back open again and they instantly pulled back, their face still stained with blushes.

"S-Sorry about that!" Sarada apologized quickly.

"S'okay!" he responded just as quickly.

Sarada figured she had better get upstairs to her room before she got into any more trouble. But before she took the first step, she stopped, smirked to herself, and turned her head around to face the young blonde. "You know, I still haven't forgotten about that little bet we made down in that cave."

Shinachiku could feel his heart clench at the memory of exactly what she was referring to. 'Dang it! Even after all that's happened she _still_ hasn't forgotten about that?!"

Sarada continued, "I do know a place in the village that serves great food and has a karaoke machine...Food for thought." Content to leave the poor blackmailed boy with that idea on his mind (and the memory of what she will tell his mother if he refused to sing for her), she went upstairs to her room.

But before she went in, she noticed that her friends, Chōchō and Tsuki, were peeking their heads out of their room and smiling at her, Chōchō's grin looking particularly smug. Clearly the two girls had been looking at their little conversation.

"What?!" Sarada asked in irritation.

The girls merely looked to one another before the looked back to their raven-haired friend and said, "Nothing."

Sarada rolled her eyes in annoyance and opened the door to the room she was sharing with Tsunade, Shizune and Hanami. The girls started giggling to one another as soon as she was out of sight.

Similarly, Shinachiku eventually found the focus to head upstairs to his own room. But before he went inside, he noticed Ōkami and Shikadai pocking their heads out of their own room, Shikadai smirking and Ōkami having a huge, shit-eating grin on his face.

"What?!" he asked in irritation.

The boys merely looked to one another before the looked back to their blonde-haired friend and said, "Nothing."

Shinachiku rolled his eyes in annoyance and opened the door to the room he was sharing with Konohamaru and Kakashi. The boys started laughing out loud as soon as he was out of sight.

What none of them had realized, however, was that there was one more person that had been watching the little scene that was transpiring between the two Genin. Hanami had been looking at them from the railing out side her room, narrow eyed and with clenched fists. She could only watch a little bit before she chose to go back inside her room, sad that her big brother seemed more interested in spending time with other girls than with her.

* * *

Inside his room, Shinachiku sat down on the bed and started thinking. He was thinking long and deep, about tomorrow, about his parent's, about Sarada, about everything. Tomorrow was the day everything was going to change, for better or worse.

"You seem to be thinking about something really hard."

The boy turned his head to see his sensei looking down at him, a sympathetic smile on his face. "Gomen Konohamaru-sensei. I just...I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"I'd say you do," Kakashi added. "But I meant what I said back there; you kids have all worked hard for this, as hard as you can in very little time. Doubting yourselves right now is only going to make all of that for not."

"Kakashi-sensei, we've all been training for this, but we're only eleven kids and a small handful of veteran Leaf ninja. Uragi's got who knows how many followers fighting for him."

Kakashi knew just what to say to the boy in that moment. "And would that have scared away your father when he was your age?"

The young blonde was taken aback and he stopped to realize the truth. "No, no it wouldn't."

Konohamaru placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "And neither should you. Shina, I've trained you since you got out of the Academy and I've known your father since he was your age. You are Naruto's son, every last ounce of him. And you've got something else that Naruto never had, your mom's brains. You can do this. And besides, you've still got all of us."

Shinachiku was quickly finding his confidence resurfacing. "Arigato Konohamaru-sensei."

"Get some rest kid," Kakashi insisted, "We've all got a big day tomorrow."

"Yes sir!"

Kakashi was right, all that training they'd done was not for nothing, they were as ready as they were ever going to be. Tomorrow was the day when they were all going to prove themselves, when they were going to forge their own legacies, and nothing was going to stand in their way!

The facts accepted, the boy opened his backpack and pulled out his copy of his father's book. He started reading some of his favorite stories from his father's old adventures to hype him up and get him motivated. The longer he read, he found himself coming to one particular story from his father's early years, the first time his father and his Uncle Sasuke dueled one another at the Valley of the End...

* * *

Sarada was back inside her room as Shizune called to get her attention. "Sarada, is everything alright dear?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, we're fine."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow in interest. _"We?"_

Sarada blushed. "OH! Umm...well by _we_ I just mean Shinachiku and I!" She only grew more nervous at the Slug Queen's smug expression. "I...Its not what you're thinking! We were just—"

"You were just going on a date with my big brother."

The atmosphere changed when Sarada turned to see Hanami sitting on the bed staring at her with her arms crossed, scowling.

"Hanami, its not like that—"

"Yes it is! I saw you two! You're trying to take my big brother away from me! I thought you and I were friends and now you want to take my oniichan away from me!"

"Hanami! I swear I'm not—"

The girl got off the bed in a huff. She stomped over to the door and slammed it behind her, leaving the other three women in the room speechless, particularly the poor girl in the glasses.

"Don't mind her," Shizune said waving her hand in the air to try and diffuse the situation. "She's just needs a little time to blow off some steam, that's all."

Sarada merely sat there on the bed, the temperature in the room suddenly feeling a lot colder all of a sudden...

Outside the door, Hanami started crying. Why? Why did she have to take him away? Why did other girls always have to come between them? Why?!

"Hanami?"

The girl looked up to the source of the familiar voice. It was him, her hero...and right now the last person in the world that she wanted to see.

"Sis? What's wrong?"

Through the girl's teary eyes she could see his concern, his worry for her. I always made her feel so safe...But not this time. Images of him and Sarada danced through her mind. The words they said, the date they'd made. The kiss they almost shared. It was all coming to the surface. It was all she could see right now...

"I hate you..."

The blood drained from the boy's face. It was like someone had just jammed a knife into the center of his back. His face faulted, his eyes went wide, and his heart was breaking right then and there.

"W-What did you say...?"

"I hate you...I HATE YOU!"

She ran off down the stairs and out the front door, tears falling from her face the whole time. It left poor Shinachiku to fall to his knees is distress. Seven years they'd been together and in all that time she had never said that to him, not once! Not even on that horrific day where she fell down the stairs and got hurt, the day she had every right to hate him!

He could sense that he wasn't alone. Looking to his left, he saw a door open and there she was. Sarada could do nothing but look on at him in sadness.

* * *

Hanami ran into the forest, tears never failing to stream down her face. She needed to get away. She needed to get far away. Far away from him. From her. From everybody!

She stopped in the middle of the forest, in an area surrounded by trees, with sunlight streaming through the treetops. She collapsed to the forest floor, her body on all fours and her head down as her tears flowed from her face and moistened the ground.

"Why?! Why would he do this to me?!"

The girl's memories went back, back to something he'd told her he'd promised her years ago. Back to when he was just five and she was just a newborn...Back to a promise he'd made to her a long time ago...

_"Hey Hanami guess what? You're oniichan's going to be watching out for you from now on! I promise nobody's going to hurt you imoto! Believe it!"_

'Oniichan...you said you wouldn't let anyone hurt me...But _you're_ the one hurting me. I thought we would always be together. I don't like it when other girls cling to you. You're _my_ big brother!'

She kept sobbing as she thought back to something else. It was yet another promise he had made her a mere few months ago...

* * *

The Uzumaki family were all going out to Ramen Ichiraku. They had decided to go out to dinner to celebrate Hanami finishing her first day at the Academy. The day had gone well and her father had told her that she could have anything she wanted tonight. She did not need to think twice about what it was that she wanted: ramen! Naruto, being Naruto, was only too proud to indulge her, and Shinachiku was pretty excited about it too. Sakura, being a mother and a doctor, would have preferred it if her little girl had gone with a healthier option, but she let it go so as not to put a damper on her first day of school.

"Hi Teuchi! Hi Ayame!" Hanami waved to the old ramen chef and his daughter ecstatically!

"Oh hi there sweetie!" Hanami said in all smiles to one of her favorite customers. "I hear that a very special little girl had their first day of school today."

"Yeah! Everyone was really nice and Shino-sensei is really smart even if he is a little creepy."

"Hanami!"

Naruto tried to diffuse the situation. "Oh let it go Sakura. Its not like he's ever going to hear about it anyway."

Sakura folded her arms in irritation. "You can be a really bad influence on her you know."

Old man Teuchi took the family's orders and before long they were all sitting together at their table eating ramen. Sakura, despite her annoyance from earlier, still couldn't help but chuckle at the enthusiasm with which her family practically inhaled their dinner.

"Hey Hanami," Shinachiku said, "Who am I?' He then covered the top half of his face with his hand and took on a dead serious posture, then proceeded to speak in a monotone voice. "Alright class, it is time to begin today's lesson."

Hanami immediately started cracking up. "Hahaha! That so Shino-sensei! Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!" Naruto couldn't help it, his son's impression of his old friend was so spot on that it was utterly hilarious...That is, until he noticed the look that his wife was giving him. "Umm...I mean, Shinachiku, that is very rude of you son. You should know better than to make fun of your old teacher like that."

"But dad, I thought you were just—?" Naruto shushed him and nonchalantly pointed in the direction of the boy's mother. The young blonde was quick to catch on. "I mean, you are right father, I should have known better."

"Very good son."

Sakura merely rolled her eyes as her husband and son's corniness, only to smile when she was sure they weren't looking.

After paying their bill, the family headed back home, Naruto giving his daughter and piggy back ride the whole way there. After getting inside, the family decided to stay up and play games for a couple of hours while Hanami told them more about what they did on her first day of ninja studies and Shinachiku got to talk about what he and Konohamaru had practiced that day.

"Okay kids, its time for you to go to bed now."

"Okay mom," the children said together.

After Hanami had gotten ready for bed, she thought about what a big, special day it had been for her and she decided that there was one last thing she wanted before she went to sleep.

Knocking on Shinachiku's door, she opened it up after hearing his voice say "Come in."

"Hi oniichan."

"Hey sis, what's up?"

She actually blushed a little bit. "Umm...I was just wondering if I could talk to you about something?"

The boy looked curious, but he happily accepted. "Sure sis, come here." He patted his bed with his hand signaling his permission for her to come over and speak to her. Sitting next to him on the bed, she started to speak.

"Well, the thing is, school was great and all and most of the kids were really nice, and so was Shino-sensei. But..." The girl looking kind of sad all of a sudden.

"Hanami, what's wrong?"

"...There were these kids at school that were real mean. They started mocking me for my pink hair and my blue eyes, and they started calling me things like 'teacher's pet' and 'Hokage's girl' and—"

"You were _bullied?!_" Shinachiku shouted in distress. He didn't pay notice to it, but his chakra was spiking the more angry he got. "Hanami, why didn't you tell mom and dad?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want either of them to be upset. Besides...I kind of feel better talking to you about this."

"What do you mean?'

"I just...I always feel so safe around you oniichan."

"But sis, its because of me that you fell down those stairs and—"

"I don't care. I love you big brother, and now that I'm going to school and you're training with Konohamaru-sensei, I'm scared we may not see each other anymore."

"That's just silly. We're siblings, we live together."

"I know, but what is something happens to either of us?'

Shinachiku put his arm around his little sister and smiled down at her. "Hey, come on, nothing is going to happen to me, or to you. No matter what happens, we'll always be together."

The girl looked up at him with hope in her eyes. "You promise?"

"Yeah, I promise." He said that with his eyes closed and with a big smile on his face, plus a big thumbs up like something Burandon's dad might do.

That was as much as it took to brighten the girl's mood and give her brother a big hug, which he happily returned. "Sing me a song tonight oniichan. Please?"

"Okay, but just one and then you should probably go to bed okay?"

"Okay."

The boy thought for a moment about what song he should go with, and then he remembered something that sounded really upbeat and which he thought would put his sister in high spirits:

_So no one told you life was gonna be this way  
Class is a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A  
It's like you're always stuck in second gear  
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year, but_

_I'll be there for you  
(When the rain starts to pour)  
I'll be there for you  
(Like I've been there before)  
I'll be there for you  
('Cause you're there for me too)_

_You're still in bed at ten, and school began at eight  
You burned your breakfast so far, things are going great  
You're mother warned you there'd be days like these  
But she didn't tell you when the world has brought you down to your knees, and_

_I'll be there for you  
(When the rain starts to pour)  
I'll be there for you  
(Like I've been there before)  
I'll be there for you  
('Cause you're there for me too)_

_No one could ever know me, no one could ever see me  
Seems you're the only one who knows what its like to be me  
Someone to face the day with, make it through all the rest with  
Someone I'll always laugh with, even at my worst, I'm best with you, yeah!_

_It's like you're always stuck in second gear  
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year but_

_I'll be there for you  
(When the rain starts to pour)  
I'll be there for you  
(Like I've been there before)  
I'll be there for you  
('Cause you're there for me too)_

_I'll be there for you  
I'll be there for you  
I'll be there for you  
'Cause you're there for me too_

Hanami responded to the song by hugging her big brother one more time. "Together forever, right oniichan?"

"Sure sis, together forever..."

* * *

Hanami continued to cry as she remained focused on the memory. Had that promise been a lie? Had he chosen Sarada over her? Was Sarada trying to take him away from her? Where were mommy and daddy? Why was **any** of this happening?!

She looked up when she felt a presence behind her, two of them. Turning around, she saw them standing behind her. Yes, _them_.

Shinachiku and Sarada were standing there, looking at her crying her eyes out. Her brother was especially concerned, but so was Sarada. The brother approached her very slowly, almost like he was afraid of her in this moment.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled, causing the brother to flinch. "Go away!"

"Hanami," he said, "imoto, I don't understand. What did I—?"

"You promised you and me would always be together. You promised!"

Ah! _Now_ is all made sense. Now he understand what was getting her so upset. And yeah, it did make him feel kind of bad. But at the same time, he knew he needed to be the adult here and do what he could to make her understand.

"Hanami, we _will_ always be together. We're brother and sister. When you disappeared, I was going insane at the thought of Taka doing anything to you. When you fell down those stairs, I blamed myself for that whole thing and I don't think I'll _ever_ learn to forgive myself for it."

Sarada turned her head to the boy in shock. 'What the...?! What is he talking about?! When did _that_ happen?!'

"Sis," he continued, "you and I are family, and I'd go to the ends of the Earth to make sure you stay safe."

"Then why are you going out with _her_ instead?!"

The girl pointed to the raven-haired preteen in anger, causing poor Sarada to be taken aback.

"Hey!" Shnachiku snapped back. "Don't talk to her that way! Sarada hasn't done anything but be nice to you this whole time! Don't you go blaming any of this on her!"

"But oniichan—?"

"Hanami, listen to me. You're my sister and I love you. I always will...But I'm growing up. We both are. Before I know it you're going to start looking at other boys and, yeah, as your big brother I'm sure I'm going to have my suspicions about it. But that's going to be _your_ life! Just like this is _my_ life!"

"I **KNOW** that!" Hanami yelled at the top of her lungs, startling both of them. Her scream was even loud enough to scare a couple of birds away.

"Hanami...?" Shinachiku trailed off as he dared to take a step closer.

"I know you're growing up. I know you have your own life...I'm just scared that I won't be a part of it."

The boy was speechless. Did she really think that? Did she really think that he would just turn his back on her because he was into another girl? He needed to make it right, he needed to console her.

With all traces of nervousness gone, he walked straight up to her, got on his knees and looked his sister straight in the eye. "Hanami, you will always be a part of me. And no matter what happens I will always be with you." He pointed his fingers at the girl's heart. "I'll be right here." And then he pointed to his own. "And you'll be right here, always."

Hanami could not help it, here eyes were watering again. He meant it, she knew he meant it. A part of him would always be with her, no mater what.

_Together forever..._

She cried into his shoulder and she wrapped her arms around him in a desperate hug. He did not even hesitate to return it. Time seemed to stand still for her as she cried her tears of happiness.

A few feet away from them, Sarada smiled on, a stray tear escaping her eye as she saw the two siblings reforming their unbreakable bond. It almost made her feel kind of sad herself for not having her own sibling.

"Oniichan," Hanami whispered, "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'm sorry for running away."

"Don't even worry about it sis; out of sight, out of mind. But you know, there is one other person you probably should apologize to."

Hanami knew exactly who he meant, and so she broke up the hug and walked over to the other girl standing in their presence. She bowed her head in regret as she spoke. "Gomen Sarada, I'm so sorry I said those mean things to you. Please forgive me."

The Uchiha girl smiled at her sweetly. "Apology accepted." But she was then surprised when the pink-haired girl thanked her by hugging her legs. She allowed it before kneeling down herself so they could share a proper hug.

"Can please promise me something though Sarada-san?"

"Sure, Hanami, what is it?"

"Oniichan is always looking out for me, so please don't do anything to break my big brother's heart. Cause if you do, you're going to have to deal with **me**! Understand?"

Sarada sweat dropped and grimaced a little bit at the girl's so-called threat. "Okay dear, I promise."

"Come on you two!" Shinachiku shouted to get their attention. "We'd better get back to the inn before any of the others start to worry about us."

With that said, Hanami and Sarada both walked on either side of the boy as they made their way through back into the village and to the inn. Hanami was holding her brother's hand the whole time. Sarada was not holding his other hand...but she did have to admit that she was thinking about it...

* * *

It was the next morning, and all of the children and their temporary guardians-teachers had checked out of the inn and were making their final march back to the Hidden Leaf Village. This was it, today was the day. The day of the Kage Summit. The day that Uragi was going to enact whatever horrible plan he and his Taka minions had in store for not only Konoha but for the rest of the shinobi world.

And now they, this small group of Genin, seemed to be the first, best hope that remained of exposing and stopping them before it was too late...No pressure. The kids all knew this too, but they didn't want to think about it. Kakashi and the other grown ups had cautioned them to treat this as a serious, S-rank mission, which meant that emotional compromise from, say, concern over the fates of their parents was not an option right now.

For Shinachiku Uzumaki, the test was even more serious. For without any words being said to him aloud, he knew that he was being burdened with a responsibility completely different than the others...the burden of leadership. Sure, Shikadai may have been the natural-born strategist and tactician, but Shinachiku was the son of the Seventh Hokage himself, a living legend. He was the star pupil of his generation, a boy whose name was known across the five shinobi nations before he'd even done anything to earn it, and now he was expected to prove himself worthy of living up to those expectations. The same symbol of hope that his father had been during the war, so too Shinachiku needed to be now...Again, no pressure.

"Alright kids," Kakashi spoke up, "we are almost at the front gate now. Lets make everyone is clear on the plan."

"Lady Tsunade and I are responsible for sneaking into the hospital to do our last bit of work needed to get more of the antidote ready," Shizune said. "And Hanami are coming with us."

"But I wanted to go with oniichan," Hanami protested.

"Hanami," Shinachiku retorted, "we talked about this last night. Where Sarada and I are going is very dangerous and you've just recovered from the serum that Taka put into you. It would make me and everyone else feel **a lot** better if you stay with Lady Tsunade. At least she'll be able to heal you if anything goes wrong."

Tsunade added her voice to the boy's. "You're brother's right. Staying close to Shizune and I is the best place you can be right now."

The girl frowned but nodded, "Okay..."

"Don't be afraid young Hanami!" Guy proclaimed as he pushed himself in his wheelchair. "You will be safe because Burandon and I will be accompanying you as well."

"Uh, yeah, right..." Ōkami said sarcastically. "Like the old man in the wheelchair is going to be any help—"

"Hey!" Burandon yelled defensively. "Do not dare undermine Guy-sensei! He is still full of surprises even at his age, disability or not!"

"It alright son," Guy said to calm him down. "I'll do as much as I can, and so long as you remember all I've taught you and we'll be fine."

Kurenai then chimed in with her team's role in the plan. "Meanwhile, I'll be leading Ōkami, Tsuki and Bagu in locating the children's parents."

"Ah man!" Ōkami complained again. "Why do I have to be put on the same team as my sister?"

"Because we need both of your Byakugan's and your heightened senses, plus Bagu's insects, to sniff out our parent's location, that's why!" Shinachiku asserted back.

"Makes sense to me," Bagu agreed.

"But—?"

"Ōkami, I can tell you from experience that having a sibling is something that's really special. It's a bond that is unlike any other in the whole world, and I can only assume that its even stronger for twins...Maybe you'll finally come to appreciate that before this day is over?"

The Inuzuka-Hyūga boy took in what his blonde-haired friend had just told him before he looked to his own twin sister. Something seemed to come over him for a moment before his stubbornness took over again and he just huffed it off. Tsuki frowned at her brother's stubbornness.

Yamato then spoke up, "I've got formation Ino-Shika-Cho with me. We're on crowd control. Protecting civilians from getting in harm's way amid whatever chaos befalls us is our responsibility. We have to minimize any chaos that get out into the village and into the city."

"Yes," Shikadai spoke for the rest of them. "We'll also be available to provide extra backup for whatever groups need it if necessary."

"Agreed," Inojin said.

Lastly, Konohamaru spoke up for the rest of the party. "Kakashi and I have the most important job of all. We're taking Shinachiku, Sarada and Sunako with us to fight our way through the Academy and make it to the Hokage's office. Most likely that's where Uragi and the kage's will be."

Chōchō couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "I understand why Shinachiku and Sarada are going with you two, but why are you going with them Sunako?"

The young sand kunoichi merely spoke with dead seriousness. "Because that's most likely where my father is going to be. Uragi will need to have the Kazekage there in attendance for the Summit to avoid too much suspicion."

The dark-skinned girl blushed in slight embarrassment. "Oh yeah, forgot about that."

"Alright then," Kakashi spoke once again. "It sounds like we're all clear then. And it looks like we are coming up on the village gate pretty soon too."

Shinachiku felt the need to say something. So, taking a deep breath, he turned to face all of his friends and put on a different demeanor, one that he often saw his father use as the Hokage. It was the posture and presence of a leader.

"This is it everyone. This is what we've all trained for. I don't know what we are going to run into on the other side of that gate, but I do know what's riding on all of us. I know that the world's not going to save itself. And I know that our parents are counting on us...Y'know, before I left on my mission with my Uncle Sasuke, my dad told me that this was going to be the first chapter of my story, and that that story was whatever I made it, so he told me to make it a good one. Well that advice doesn't just apply to me anymore, it applies to all of us! This is our chance to forge our own destiny. This is our chance to prove that we can be heroes too! Remember, every great shinobi in history started out as nothing more than what we are now...Genin, students, children. If they can do it, why not us?!"

Shinachiku wasn't expecting it, but he somehow got a round of applause from his little speech. The adults, Kakashi and Konohamaru especially, were smiling in pride from the way the boy was stepping up to the plate. Hanami was clapping ecstatically at her big brother's speech, and Sarada actually blushed slightly as well.

"Tonight," he continued, "we are going to do our part to stop Taka! To save our village! To save the world! And **nothin's** gonna stand in our way!"

The applause only grew louder as his words came to a close. It filled him with pride and confidence. It made him feel like he could do anything. Like he was a hero.

It was true, no matter what happened, nothing was going to stand in their way...

_The fortunate ones_  
_To be fast and free and young_  
_I want to count myself among_  
_The fortunate ones_

_We won't be denied_  
_We know that time is on our side_  
_We've got the passion and the pride_  
_We won't be denied_

_This generation_  
_With fire in our eyes_  
_Strong are the ties that bind us_  
_We don't need no alibis_

_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Not tonight_

_We want it all_  
_And tonight we got the call_  
_We're running high but we won't fall_  
_We want it all_

_We won't be denied_  
_Like a breaker at high tide_  
_We're gonna take that sweet joy ride_  
_We won't be denied_

_New expectations_  
_Moments in the sun_  
_We've waited all our lives_  
_And now we know our time has come_

_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Not tonight_

_Nothin's standing_  
_Nothin's standing in our way_  
_Nothin's standing_  
_Nothin's standing in our way_

_This generation_  
_We've got fire in our eyes_  
_Strong are the ties that bind us_  
_We don't need no alibis_

_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Not tonight_  
_Not tonight_  
_Not tonight_  
_Not tonight_

_Nothin's standing_  
_Nothin's standing in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Nothin's gonna stand in our way_  
_Not tonight_

There were at the village gate now. Just on the inside of it, they could see a huge crowd of villagers gathered around as they eagerly awaited the arrival of a very special guest. Or rather, three very special guests.

Nodding to one another, the company split up into small groups to avoid attracting too much attention and took a secret entrance into the village gate that Shinachiku's father had once showed him when he was younger. The young blonde did not know it, but this was the exact same secret entrance that both of his parents had used to escape from the village after Taka had declared them fugitives.

After swiping some quick disguises, mainly makeshift cloaks, the company worked their way into the crowd getting as close to the front as they could. Before long, a small convoy made up of three horse-drawn carriages had come into view, riding in single file. The crowd applauded the honored guests as they came through the gate.

Uragi was standing there on a platform that had been set up overnight for the occasion. As acting Hokage he was responsible for welcoming and greeting his guests, just as he planned.

The drivers pulled the reigns on their horses as the three carriages came to a stop. The first carriage opened up and out stepped a young, dark-skinned man with short, spiky, white hair and dark eyes accentuated with lines curving upwards from the corners. He was wearing a small version of his village's flak jacket, a white piece that overlapped a gray hoodie, which he wore with black pants. He carried a long sword on his back.

The Cloud ninja held the door open as his friend and master stepped out after him. He was a fairly tall man with dark skin as well and a slightly bulbous nose. He had a somewhat lazy look in his eyes and had shaggy, white hair that covered his left eye. He also had a small white mustache and creased in the corner of his mouth. He wore a sleeveless hood that opened in a V-shape to expose some of his chest, with loose fitting pants, and over his hoodie was the white flak jacket of his village. He also had the characters for water and lightning tattooed on his right and left shoulders, respectively, a hint at his own chakra affinities. He carried a broad, foldable, cleaver-like sword on his back.

Then the second carriage opened up. Out stepped a body guard dressed in the blue silks of his village. He looked fairly straight forward, carrying a long sword at his waist. But the crowd was much more interested in the man he was escorting.

Stepping out of the carriage after his bodyguard was a tall man with short, tufty blue hair and dark eyes. He had a firm jawline with some chin stubble and wore square-shaped glasses with thick black frames that were connected to large ear protectors. He wore a blue pin-striped shirt and light grey pants. The holster for his sword lapped over his left shoulder. The sword itself was very large with a wide, flat blade with curved indentations near its base that created a sort of cross-guard. The two handles on the sword were connected by a short length cord. The sword's overall appearance, while it was wrapped in bandages, resembled that of a flounder fish.

The third and final carriage opened up and out of it stepped a tall and imposing man with dark eyes and black hair that was tied in a ponytail. He had a short beard on his face and wore a yellow scarf around his neck. The man was dressed in a brown kimono and pants.

The man held the door open to allow the person he was escorting to step out. It was a young woman with short black hair and pupil-less, pink eyes that were accentuated by her eyelashes that ran upwards at the corners. She was dressed in a red dress with a sleeve on the left side, the right side left her arm bare. She also had on some red nail polish.

Each of the three honored guests that came out of their carriages also had one other thing in common. They were each wearing a pyramid-shaped hat with a white cloth that flowed in the back and two cords that ran along the left side, and the kanji for their title on the front. The dark-skinned man in the black hood wore a yellow-colored hat, the man with the blue hair and glassed wore a blue-colored hat, and the women in the red dress wore a brown-colored hat.

The three guests and their bodyguards approached the platform and were greeted by Uragi, who was wearing his own red-colored kage's hat as well.

"It is a great honor to the welcome you, my honored guests, to the Village Hidden in the Leaves!" Uragi said. "Lords Raikage, Mizukage, Tsuchikage, thank you all for coming."

"The honor is ours Councilman, or should I say 'Lord Hokage,'" the Raikage, the dark-skinned man said. "I'm not sure if we have ever been properly introduced. I am Darui, the Fifth Raikage, and this is my friend and bodyguard Omai."

"My lord," the younger Cloud ninja bowed.

"I am Chōjūrō, the Sixth Mizkage, and this is my bodyguard." The bodyguard bowed in respect but did not speak.

"And I am Kurotsuchi, the Fourth Tsuchikage, and this is my bodyguard and old friend Akatsuchi."

"Lord Hokage," the tall, bearded man in the scarf said bowing.

Darui did not hesitate to acknowledge that one of their guests was noticeable missing. "Where is Gaara? I was concerned when he never joined our convoy along he journey here."

Uragi was quick to answer with a lie. "The Fifth Kazekage and his brother arrived here just the other night. He is waiting for us in my office at the Academy right now."

"I hope the Kazakage is taking things well," Chōjūrō said.

Uragi could not help but raise an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

"Lord Uragi," Kurotsuchi said, "it is well know to all of us that Gaara and the Seventh Hokage are very close friends. I have to imagine that the news of Naruto and his wife's recent, err..._predicament_ we'll say, must have been a great burden to him."

Uragi said nothing for about two seconds, before he at last came up with a response. "It was difficult for him to accept, yes. But we had a private discussion so-to-speak and I was able to bring him around to agreeing to participate in today's proceedings."

"And just what _is_ the purpose of this meeting?" Darui questioned.

"All in good time Lord Raikage, all in good time. But for now, lets go to my office so we can discuss things in private."

And so the Taka leader lead his guests back to the Academy, the oblivious cheers of the villagers accompanying their departure as they stepped out of sight.

Within the crowd, a series of private signals were sent to the small group of heroes. Without another word, the parties each split off into their own separate paths, leaving to go fulfill their part of the mission.

As he and his team stealthily moved in the direction of the Academy, Shinachiku had one thought on his mind, the same thought that had been on his mind days before: 'Hang on mom, dad, we're home now and we're coming for you!'

* * *

At last, the wait is over! The kids are finally back home and we are poised to enter the big climax. Hopefully now that the slow period is over things will start to pick up and I will get some of my old inspiration back again.

Like the previous chapter, there weren't really any big references in this chapter, except the we did get not one, but two songs. The first song was "I'll Be There For You" by the Rembrandts...Yes, the theme song from "Friends." I know that may seem like an odd choice, but I wanted a song that could fit in with Shinachiku and Hanami's relationship that could both be touching and still upbeat, so that there was not a terribly drastic tonal shift when we got to the second song of this chapter. I did feel the need to change a couple of the lyrics though; any references to work were changed to school, so that it was more relevant to Hanami.

In speaking of which, the second song was "Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way" (the song for which the chapter is titled) by Spectre General (also known as Kick Axe). The song appears on the soundtrack to "The Transformers: The Movie" (the original animated movie from 1986 that was in continuity with the original G1 animated series). It appears in the scene where Hot Rod rescues Kup from the robotic fish while they are both underwater on the Quintesson planet. I thought that the song was a great fit for the kid's youth and attitude and their desire to prove themselves, and how they will do everything they can to prove themselves and save the day.

Also, during Shinachiku's speech to his friends before the second song plays, he comments that every great shinobi before them had started out as students just like them. This was a reference to "Happy Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" where Harry says the same thing to inspire his friends in Dumbledore's Army while they are training in the Room of Requirement.

I guess that's all I've got for this time. I hope the chapter was worth the wait, and I hope I still have your attention for next time. Again, thank you all so much for your support.

Until next time, see ya!


	40. Chapter 38--The Price of Freedom

Hello friends, thesaiyanjedi is finally back with the latest chapter of ""Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I want to apologize for he long, long delay in this latest chapter coming out. My job has recently started up again and to top it all off, I have been sick for about two weeks now, and even now I'm still fighting off the last of my allergies. I hope all of you can forgive me and I really hope that the chapter I've come up with makes the wait all worth it.

So, with that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 38: The Price of Freedom**

The hallways of Konoha Hospital were surprisingly quiet. The hustle and bustle that came with the Kage's arrival resulted in activity appearing relatively quiet today. The patients that were in intensive care had some round-the-clock nurses on standby but other than that the cold, sterile halls were empty.

This was good, because it was just the opening that Tsunade and her team needed to get into the infirmary. Crawling in through a window, Tsunade and Shizune signaled for the others to wait outside for a moment and search for anyone coming their way.

The two older women didn't waste any time. They each started raiding the lockers and cabinets until they found what they needed. Getting themselves prepared, they stepped back out of the window to start giving guidance to the children.

"Hey!" Hanami said as she pointed at them both. "I've seen mommy and her nurses dress like that."

"Yes Hanami," Shizune said, "these are doctor's scrubs. They're going to be our disguise to get the rest of you inside. We're just going to need you all to do as we say."

"Alright listen," Tsunade said in a more serious tone as she put on a doctor's mask and cap, completing her disguise, to which Shizune did the same. "Hanami, Burandon, you two climb in through the window and wait here until we get back. Stay out of sight until we return and wait for further orders then. Guy, Shizune and I are going to sneak you in through the front door, so I know you won't like it, but try to pretend to be the oldest, weakest old man you possibly can be."

The Old Green Beast of Konoha sat up straight in his wheelchair and saluted his former kage. "Yes ma'am!"

"Lady Tsunade," Burandon said, "what should Hanami and I do if we are discovered in there?"

The Slug Queen merely answered simply as she and Shizune took hold of Guy's chair and started moving to the front entrance, "Lock the door."

Shizune added, "And hope they don't have weapons on them."

That left the children to the stand there as Burandon said aloud, "That isn't very reassuring..."

As the kids started climbing their way into the window, the adults were carrying on with their own part of the plan. Shizune was pushing the chair with Tsunade standing close by. Guy was keeping his head down low so his face would not be seen and was doing his best acting to sell that he was a sick old man.

When the three of them entered through the doorway, they passed through the lobby get to the room they told the kids to wait in.

"Hold it!" a voice called out to them.

'Damn it!' Tsunade cursed inside her own head. She turned to face the one that called out to them putting on the best smile she could beneath her mask. "Good day, is there a problem?"

Tsunade and Shizune both recognized the nurse who had stopped them. She was a woman in her early twenties with short black hair and brown eyes. Her name was Tsuta, and she was one of Sakura's most loyal and trusted nurses...Of course, that was before any of them knew where the girl true allegiances lay, for this was also the very same woman who lead the attempted capture of Sakura on the day she and Naruto were forced out of their own village as fugitives.

"Pardon me miss but where are you two taking this patient?"

Shizune came up with a quick response. "This gentleman has been suffering from asthma, we both felt that it would be for the best that he be aloud outside for a little while to get some fresh air. Besides, he'd just awoken from his nap a little while ago and was complaining that he was getting tired of being cooped up in his room all day."

Tsuta checked her roster. "Hmm...I don't seem to have any notification of that. Did you clear this with hospital management?"

"Yes," Tsunade said. "We got the all clear for the patient's doctor already ma'am."

Tsuta then looked down at the patient in question and noticed that his head had been down the whole time. "How are you feeling today sir? Is there anything I can help you with?"

Guy never looked up at her and instead just mumbled some random nonsense that she could barely hear. Tsuta looked to Shizune demanding an explanation.

Poor Shizune knew she had to come up with an answer on the spot, so as the ever worrisome apprentice to the Fifth Hokage she did the one and only thing that was coming to her head in this moment...She smiled like an idiot really hard beneath her mask, praying that there weren't any nervous sweat drops on her forehead that might give her away.

Tsuta chose to pay it no mind and just backed off. "Very well then, go on ahead. Just make sure to double check with the front desk next time."

"Will do," Shizune said as she waved behind them. With that potential disaster out to the way they continued pushing Guy's chair down the halls to the door that would lead them to the room where the kids were waiting for them.

As the former head of the hospital, Tsunade knew this facility inside and out. It was second nature to her which door was the one they were looking for.

"Stop here!" she ordered the others. Shizune stopped pushing Guy's chair, but Guy continued keeping his head down to maintain his act in case anyone else should come down the halls in that moment.

Tsunade opened the door slowly and slightly and whispered, "Psst! Kids? Are you in here?"

Burandon and Hanami peaked their heads out from under a table, confirming their presence to the senior ninja. The others then entered the room and shut the door behind them, locking it.

"Nice job keeping yourself concealed my boy!" Guy said with a thumbs up, finally breaking his act.

Burandon returned the nice guy pose back to the old man with similar over enthusiasm. "Thank you Guy-sensei! I have no doubt your performance was most exquisite as well!"

Tsunade and Shizune could only roll their eyes at the duo's nauseating display, while young Hanami thought little of it. "What do we do now m'lady?"

Tsunade looked around the room for inspiration, and then she got an idea. "Both of you kids lie down on that gurney there. Shizune, find a white sheet to cover them with. We can wheel both them and Guy to the research room from there."

"Hai!" Everyone said in response.

Burandon lay down on the gurney and Hanami just beneath him. Remarkably, the gurney was large enough to fit both of them and when Shizune threw the sheet on top of them, they appeared to create a convincing enough image of an adult cadaver.

Tsunade took hold of the gurney as Shizune took Guy's chair again. "Alright, lets go. Remember, you kids are playing dead so don't make a sound."

"Hai!" they both said.

The group made it down the hallways this way, keeping up the act to avoid attracting attention to themselves. Eventually they made it to the room that had all of the equipment that they were going to need. Checking one last time to make sure that they were not being followed, they opened the door and pushed Guy and the kids inside. They locked the door behind them.

"Okay, the coast is clear," Tsunade said.

Guy relaxed from his performance while the kids threw off the sheet and got off of the gurney. Burandon took Hanami to the side with him, guessing that Tsunade and Shizune would need plenty of focus to complete their job.

"Stay with me Hanami, for I have promised to help to keep you safe while we are infiltrating this facility!"

"Umm...thank you Burandon."

With that, Burandon got himself into a defensive pose (despite the five of them being completely alone in the room), to fulfill his duty. All the while Tsunade and Shizune set to work on creating more of the antidote that they knew was going to mean everything if this infiltration mission was going to be successful.

* * *

"You kids see anything yet?"

Kurenai and her team were in the depths of the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility, navigating their way through the dark and dank shadows trying to find Kiba, Hinata, Shino and the others, and she prayed that they weren't too late to reach them all before something terrible happened.

Ōkami and Tsuki scanned multiple levels of the facility with their Byakugan's, while their ninken Akamoro and Akamiri sniffed for any signs of activity, but thankfully for the team the pups kept their barking to a minimum to not attract attention.

"Nothing yet Kurenai-sensei," Tsuki said.

"Yeah, I'm not seeing anything either," Ōkami concurred.

Kurenai thought for only a moment before speaking again. "Bagu, deploy your insects."

"Hai," the boy in the green jacket and the dark glasses said simply. After making a few hand signs, a hoard of small insects emerged from the boy's sleeves and making only the faintest buzzing sound, the insects flew away from their master into the upper rafters in search of their targets.

"How long is this going to take?" Ōkami questioned.

"Difficult to say," Bagu responded. "However long it takes, my clan's symbiotic link with my insects will alert me if they succeed in locating their quarry."

"Alright then," Kurenai started ordering again, "we cannot afford to just sit idly by either. Team, lets move out ourselves and start covering more ground. Ōkami and Tsuki, you two lead the way with your Byakugan and let Akamoro and Akamiri continue searching for the other's scents."

"Don't worry Kurenai-sensei," Ōkami responded, "Akamoro can track mom and dad's scents like the back of his hand...err, paw."

No further words said, the team used their ninja stealth to patrol the dark halls of the prison unseen by Anbu security. Kurenai could not help but feel a bit nostalgic; going on a mission with these kids was so much like the early days when she was teaching their parents.

'Hinata, Kiba, Shino, you should all be proud of your children.'

Sadly there was no more time for reminiscing, work needed to be done. Naruto and the others needed to be found if Taka was going to be stopped today...assuming of course that Kakashi and the others were doing their part in carrying out the plan.

* * *

"I do hope that your journey here has been pleasant gentlemen...and lady."

"Spare us the flattery Uragi," Darui said rather rudely. "When do we learn the meaning of all of this?"

The old man was quick to answer in a nonchalant manner. "Just as soon as we make it to my office Lord Raikage."

"For what its worth," Chōjūrō butted in, "the trip here was pleasant enough, but I can't say I found the increased security terribly pleasant."

"Well in light of recent events we have been forced to take some more extreme precautions for this year's summit. Regrettably even the Hidden Leaf Village cannot always be fully in control of everything all the time."

Kurotsuchi butted in with sarcasm, "That includes Naruto Uzumaki I presume?"

Uragi was not looking at the other kage's so they were not able to see his clearly disgruntled face. "Err, yes, well, that was a tragedy indeed, which brings me to another reason for the increased security. Our village not only lost a once great leader but as the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails we have also lost one of our most valuable defensive resources."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms as they continued walking. "I doubt that Gaara would be happy to hear you referring to one of his closest friends that way."

"Touché, Lady Tsuchikage."

By now the company that consisted of four of the highest-ranking shinobi in the world, plus their personal bodyguards, had made it to the Hokage's office. Uragi stood in front of the door and spoke to his guests.

"Alright my friends, I thank you all once again for your patience. But now, if you would all be courteous enough to the follow me inside, we can at last begin."

The other kages walked through the open door as requested, though Darui did so with a semi-dismissive snort. But as they walked inside, they noticed that, just as Uragi has said, Gaara and his brother Kankurō were already seated at the round table, Gaara's green kage hat resting on the table...Little did they know that the hat was merely a replica that was quickly cobbled together because the Sand Sibling's real hat was still back at his home in Sunagakure.

The auburn-haired man stood up and greeted the others with an unusual sense of optimism and a very bizarrely large smile. "Welcome my friends, I am pleased that all of you could make it today."

There was a moment of awkwardness and discomfort in the room as they took in their colleague's demeanor. It was Chōjūrō who spoke for the others. "Umm...are you alright Gaara?"

"I am fine, thank you Lord Mizukage. How are you?"

"Fine, I guess. Sorry to hear about Naruto man."

"That man is a traitor to his country and his village and to everything our shinobi alliance represents. I eagerly await the news of his and his wife's capture. My only regret is the shame I feel for ever considering him my friend."

It was like time had stopped for a brief moment. Never before had they heard Gaara speak so candidly, so hatefully against Naruto. They did not get to see the brief flash blue in the former jinchūriki's eyes before he said that.

"Gentlemen and women," Uragi interrupted, "If I may, lets take a seat so we can get started."

With that, the five kages sat down at the round table for the next Kage Summit...and what an interesting and unique summit it was going to be...

Outside of the window to the Hokage's office, four Leaf ninja and one Sand ninja were listening in on the conversation that was happening inside the room. They where just out of range of the window so they were not spotted, but the young Genin from the Sand Village was able to see that blue flash in her father's eyes and watch as those hateful words left his mouth.

It was not like Sunako to show many of her emotions, but the anger she was feeling was unmistakable, with her clenched fists as a dead giveaway. "That's not my father."

Sarada turn her head to her current teammate, "What do you mean?"

"My father would never say such things about Lord Hokage. He is not himself, I _know_ it!"

Shinachiku was quick to agree. "We were all there in your house before the attack Sunako, and I've know you and your dad since I was a kid."

"But then what has gotten into him?" Yamato questioned.

"His eyes."

The others turned to the Sand heiress again, and it was Konohamaru who spoke for them. "What do you mean?"

"There was a blue flash in his eyes, I saw it."

The pieces came together quickly for the blonde Genin as his eyes widened in shock. "He's being controlled. They've taking over his mind, just like they did Master Jiraiya, Aunt Hinata's cousin and..."

The boy could not bring himself to finish his own sentence so Sarada had to awkwardly do it for him. "...Your grandparents?"

"...Yeah..."

"Hey! Get focused you three!" Kakashi snapped to get the children's attention. "We need to listen to what's going on in there and then find a way to get the word out to the village."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sarada asked, "what about our parent's?"

"Let Kurenai and her team worry about that," Konohamaru answered for the retired kage. "We need to focus on our own mission now."

"Hai sensei," Sarada apologized.

"Psst!" Kakashi hushed everyone as he signaled them to listen in. "They're speaking again."

The team pressed their ears to the wall as they continued to listen in on the proceedings.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Uragi said, "I have called you all here because a new weapon has arisen, one that could spell the end of our world if allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Imagine a weapon, seven weapons when, all brought together, can single-handedly destroy an entire village, killing millions of people all at once."

"Sounds like something a jinchūriki can do," Darui dismissed.

"Or what that Akatsuki leader did to your village decades ago," Chōjūrō added.

"Yes,' Uragi continued. "But imagine, the power of a tailed beast, power rivaling and perhaps even surpassing a jinchūriki's, held in the palm of your hand."

"What are you talking about Uragi?" Kurotsuchi questioned.

"I am talking about...these."

The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out three gems, one blue, one green, one yellow. The three gems shone with an intense, almost ethereal light, one that seemed to hypnotize the visiting four kages that stared at their spectrum radiance. In particular, the blue gem was holding their attention, particularly the Kazekage's.

"These, my friends, are three of the mythical chakra gems," Uragi continued. "According to ancient scrolls long forgotten by history, seven of these jewels exist, forged by the goddess Princess Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself for her sons Hogoromo and Hamura. When their mother went mad and the brothers sealed her within the moon, the brothers knew the danger these gems posed, especially if they were ever brought together. So they scattered them to the far corners of the world, buried where no one would ever find them."

"Yet you hold three of them in your hand?" Darui questioned.

"Some more enlightened individuals have manage to follow ancient clues to the gems' locations and have recovered them. Undoubtedly they were intending to use them for evil purposes, and would have succeeded had shinobi loyal to our alliance not recovered them and brought them to our attention."

Gaara remained silent the entire time while the other three kages took in this bizarre development. They all looked to one another, then to the glowing gems their aged peer held in his hand. None of them could deny that there really was something special about these 'chakra gems' as Uragi called them.

It was Chōjūrō who spoke next for the rest of them. "So, what kind of power do them gems have exactly?"

"As I said, each gem does something different. For example," he pointed to the glowing yellow gem he held in his hand, "the Soul Gem has the power to resurrect the dead."

Kurotsuchi's eyes grew in shock. "Like the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu?"

"No my dear, it works quite different. You see, people do not come back to life as undead beings like during the Fourth Great War, but as fully living and healthy individuals."

Darui narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "I sense that there is some sort of cost to this."

"Well...yes. People brought back to life by the gem do have an increased vulnerability to certain ailments, such as becoming more vulnerable to...persuasion. Also, the gem can be used to take away a person's life just as easily as it was to give it back."

"Seem like awfully cruel circumstances to live out a second life."

Uragi kept up his act. "All the more reason why we should be grateful that this weapon is in our possession and no one else's."

"What about the green one?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"Aw yes!" Uragi pointed to the glowing green stone. "This one here is the Space Gem, a Chakra Gem that Sunagakure has had under their protection for a long time now and which our esteemed Kazekage agreed to reveal to us for today's summit."

The other three kage's quickly turned to face Gaara, Darui in particular was outraged.

"Lord Kazekage!" the dark-skinned leader bellowed, "You dare keep a weapon like this to yourself and neglect to inform the rest of us! Have you no respect for the Shinobi Alliance?!"

The auburn-haired sand ninja merely turned to his peers slowly and with no emotion. "My apologies friends, but we concluded that it was in our best interests to keep the gem hidden and not be used for fear of exactly the kind of terror we are seeing right now."

"What?"

Uragi spoke up again, "All in good time Lord Raikage. Now anyway, the Space Gem is unique in that it has the power of instantaneous teleportation to anywhere the user wishes to travel. A person need only hold the gem, imagine where they wish to be and instantly they arrive there."

Chōjūrō appeared quite interested in this particular gem. "That sounds quite impressive. Are there no limitations?"

"The only conditions are that the user must have a clear visualization in their minds of where exactly they would wish to be teleported to, meaning that you cannot be teleported to anyplace you have never been before and therefore have no clear picture of. Also, using this gem quickly drains a person's chakra, you can only make two jumps in one day, the trip there and the trip back."

The other kages looked to one another again before Darui spoke. "And the blue gem?"

"This," Uragi said, with seemingly more pride than before, "is the Mind Gem. It has the power give someone complete control over another living being, bending their mind to your will."

Kurotsuchi leaped out of her seat in horror. "You mean that thing is a mind control weapon?!"

"If kept in the wrong hands, yes. A psychopath who got a hold of this gem could enslave an army of shinobi to their will if they so chose. I don't even want to imagine the terror it could unleash if a criminal like Orochimaru ever obtained it."

"Is there no way to free oneself from it's influence?" Chōjūrō questioned.

Uragi did not answer the quiet for about a second, as if he were somehow nervous, or unwilling, to give an answer. "...Yes, someone with a strong enough will can break free of the gem's control with enough effort."

Outside the window, Shinachiku and the others were listening in, paying particular attention to what was being said about the chakra gems. The realization that three of the seven gems were already in Taka's possession was utterly horrific! But it did answer a lot of questions.

The gears in Kakashi's head were turning. 'Taka must have used the Soul Gem to bring Jiraiya, Neji, Minato-sensei and Lady Kushina back to life, then used the Mind Gem to turn them into their living puppets. If they can do all of that, there's no telling how many other dead shinobi they might have working as their slaves.'

Shinachiku could feel his hands tightening into fists. There was a familiar, suspicious spike in his chakra, something that grew as he got more and more angry. It was something almost...inhuman...

Sarada could sense something was off in the boy, and she did not to be a genius like her Uncle Itachi to guess that it had to do with what the chakra gems had done to his grandparents.

"Shina?" she put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"H-Huh?"

"We'll save them...we will."

Shinachiku calmed down and smiled back at her. "Thanks Sarada."

"Hey!" Konohamaru snapped as quietly as he could to get their attention. "Pay attention you two, their still talking."

Back inside the Hokage's office, Darui got back to talking about the matter at hand. "Well Uragi, this is all very interesting, but I still don't understand what these 'Chakra Gems' as you call them have to do with the four of us?"

Uragi smirked to himself before continuing. "Well, as I've said these are only three of the Chakra Gems we have under our protection, and recently word has come in that yet another has been found...Which brings me to the matter of my predecessor..."

There was silence in the room when the old man said that. They all knew who he meant but they were not willing to say it aloud, partially for Gaara's sake, despite his shockingly dismissive behavior earlier. Instead, they allowed for Uragi to continue.

"I am certain you all remember the day an assassin attacked the Seventh Hokage and his wife during their first marriage attempt. We've obtained evidence that ever since that day Naruto Uzumaki has been secretly dispatching Anbu on covert, off-the-books operations. On the most recent of these operations an Anbu Black Op presented the Hokage with this."

Uragi pulled something out of his pocket and set in on the table for the rest of the kages to look at it. It was a simple, unassuming scroll.

"What is this?" Chōjūrō asked.

"That scroll is a piece of valuable information that your former ally deliberately withheld from his own village's intelligence. It was for this thing that he and his wife were labeled traitors to the Hidden Leaf Village."

"What's on the scroll?" Kurotsuchi questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?" All of the kages and their bodyguards, save for the stoic Gaara and his brother, shook their heads no. "This scroll contains a map to the locations of each of the Chakra Gems, including the three still left unaccounted for."

There was an audible gasp from everyone both inside the room and outside of it. Whilst the kages and their entourages were recovering from their shock, so too were the heroes that were snooping in on them.

"A map?!" Shinachiku nearly yelled. "To the other Chakra Gems?! My dad had that the whole time! Why didn't he ever say anything?"

"Probably because he didn't know what it was, or he thought it was something else entirely and could never get it open," Kakashi reasoned.

"Uragi must have taken it from Lord Hokage when they captured him," Sunako concluded. "I bet Odaku brought it to him because they hoped he could get it open and when he couldn't they attacked him to get it back."

"Shh!" Konohamaru hushed them. "Listen!"

"A map to the Chakra Gems?" Darui questioned. "It seems unlikely. How can you know for sure?"

"The carbon dating on that scroll," Uragi reasoned. "That paper dates back to ancient times, to the era of Princess Kaguya. I have no doubt that printed on that scroll are the locations of the Chakra Gems as written by Hogoromo and Hamura."

"Even if that is the case," Chōjūrō interrupted, "it does not prove this accusation that Naruto is somehow a criminal that plotted against his own village."

"Oh no? Some of you may not have heard but about the same time that Uzumaki came into possession of this scroll, he also received a late-night visit an old colleague of his, one Sasuke Uchiha, a name I'm certain you all know well. Our intelligence confirmed that Uchiha came to Uzumaki's house to speak with him about the location of a fourth chakra gem, the Power Gem, a gem that at maximum power could give any person who holds it the power to wipe out an **entire village** in **one** blast! Uchiha left with Uzumaki's son to recover this inconceivable weapon mere **days** later, on a mission he **neglected** to inform me and my fellow elders about beforehand! Don't believe me? Then double check the rumors going around of a crimson death beam appearing in the remains of the Hidden Whirlpool Village!"

"Wait just a minute!" Kurotsuchi said standing up. "How do we know that any of this Chakra Gem nonsense is even real in the first place?"

Uragi smirked, "I'm glad one of you finally thought to ask that..." He pocketed two of the gems he showed the group and kept one of them in his hand, the Mind Gem. "...Because I think I know just the way to prove it to all of you."

The gem started glowing blue and its radiance captured the eyes of everyone else in the room. Darui, Omoi, Chōjūrō, his bodyguard, Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, Gaara and Kankurō, all of them found themselves under the gems control.

With cold, heartless resentment, Uragi began to speak. "The Shinobi Alliance is dead. The so-called ideals you hold to are a lie. You claim to be equals that only value peace and prosperity but you are really nothing but opportunistic dealers of death that only value your own power. Naruto Uzumaki is the worst of all of you. And for that, he will soon enough pay the price—"

The Interim-Hokage's speech was cut short by the sound of breaking glass. The three kages were knocked out of their brief hypnosis, but they had not yet gotten a proper barring on what had just happened.

Konohamaru and Kakashi broke in and slammed the old man to the floor, pinning him in place and their combined weight leaving him unable to move.

"Agh! AAAHH!" Uragi cried out as he struggled to the get free. He would not let go of the Mind Gem in his hand, holding a tight grip on it.

But while the other kages were still collecting their bearings, Gaara was fully awake and was poised to launch his own attack.

"SAND COF—!"

"SAND STORM!"

A sudden wave of sand swooped into the room and engulfed the Kazekage and his brother before either of them could act. The wave then solidified into hard sandstone that pinned both ninja in lace against the wall. The one who caused this then entered the room herself.

"Sunako...?"

"Forgive me father, but I had no choice."

"W-What? What is the meaning of this?" Darui demanded.

"Forgive us Lord Raikage," Kakashi said as he entered through the broken window. "My team and I hate to impede on these proceedings but I am afraid you have all been deceived."

"What are you saying?" Omoi demanded, drawing his sword in defense. Chōjūrō's bodyguard did the same.

"If you have come to lay a hand on Kurotsuchi, you will have to answer to me!" Akatsuchi yelled in defiance.

"Please! Don't hurt anyone!"

The voice came from two more people who entered through the broken window, a boy with blonde hair and wearing an orange jacket and black shorts, and a girl with black hair, glasses and wearing a black vest over a white button-up shirt with red trim and white shorts.

Uragi recognized both of these children immediately. "Ah yes, Shinachiku Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha. What a pleasure it is for you two to join us."

"Drop the act!" Shinachiku snapped. "We're here to put an end to your lies Uragi!"

"Lies?" the old man asked, faking innocence and the two Jōnin allowed him to stand up, his arms still pinned. "You are the one who has been living a lie boy. Your father and godfather have been deceiving you, using you just to get a weapon to fuel their own selfish ends—"

"Shut up!" Sarada yelled, a Chidori activated and shirking loudly. she held the jutsu in her hand and pointed it directly at the man's neck. "Don't you talk about my dad like that!"

"Your father's are both traitors children," Gaara spoke. "Accept it."

"You know in your heart that is not true father," Sunako protested. "This is Taka filling your head with lies."

_"Taka?"_ Kurotsuchi questioned in confusion. "Uchiha's old team from during the war?"

"No, a _very_ different Taka," Kakashi answered. Though he could tell that none of the guests (save for Gaara and Kankurō) understood what that meant.

"Don't worry," Shinachiku said as he walked over to the Hokage's desk. "Everything is going to be made clear very soon."

His father had told him about this a long time ago. During the great expansion of the village after the war, while the city was being built overlooking the Hokage Monument, an intercom-radio receiver was installed inside the office for the Hokage's personal use only. It was only meant to be used in the event that the Hokage needed to issue a city-wide alert to declare a state of emergency that absolutely needed to made known to the villagers for their own good. It was only meant as an ultimate last resort, and Naruto was always proud that during his reign there had never been a time when it needed to be used.

...Until now.

As the Hokage's son, Shinachiku was one of a very, _very_ select few individuals who Naruto allowed to even know of this intercom's existence, a list that included Kakashi (his predecessor as Hokage, during whose reign it was installed in the first place), Sakura, Hanami, Shikamaru and Shizune, and that was it! And all of them has sworn to secrecy to never speak of it outside of this office so that its existence could never be abused by anyone...Just like Shinachiku was going to have to do now.

The boy opened a drawer in his father's desk and lifted out a false bottom. He then pulled out a compact metal box with a microphone attached to it and a single red button.

"What are you doing boy?" Durai questioned.

"I'm letting the world know the truth."

Uragi was utterly shocked. "H-How?! Where did?!—"

As Uragi tried to struggle, Kakashi and Konohamaru kept their grip on him that much tighter, Kakashi even producing a Lightning Blade which he held directly under the old man's chin. Gaara and Kankurō struggled to break free as well, but Sunako only poured more of her chakra into her sand, which was itself fueled by the essence of her late mother.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Shinachiku said to Uragi. "You mean to tell me that all these days you've been Hokage and you never found out about my dad's secret intercom to the entire village. You must be getting sloppy in your old age."

With a brief eye contact from Kakashi, the boy pushed the button and began to speak:

"Attention all citizens of Konohagakure, this is Shinachiku Uzumaki, son of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. I'm sure many of you have heard about me and I know you've heard a lot about my parents over the past few days. Some of you have even been ordered to hunt them down. But I think its time for you to know the truth..."

The boy took a deep sigh before he continued, the ears of the village as well as all the occupants of the room hanging on his every word. "Our village isn't what we thought it was, it's been taken over by _Taka_. Not the Taka that my godfather Sasuke Uchiha led during the war, but a much larger, secret society that has stolen their name to frame them for their crimes and to pervert the twisted beliefs my uncle might have had at one point as a younger man. I tell you this because Taka is inside our village right now, and have been among us in secret for the last seventeen years. Even worse, our Interim-Hokage, Uragi Rimonō, is one of their leaders."

There was silence in the room as the three kages glared at their host. Amusingly, the old man seemed to merely brush it off, as if he knew something that he wasn't telling.

The boy continued: "Many of our village's ninja and Anbu Black Ops are Taka as well. We don't know how many there are, but we know they're here. They could be standing right next to you."

The young blonde could not know for sure, but he could imagine that throughout the Academy and in major shinobi outposts like the Jōnin Standby Station, there must be an extremely uncomfortable atmosphere. Loyal ninja and Anbu alike suddenly being forced to second-guess their own comrades...How he wished it did not have to come to this.

"With the Kage Summit happening today they almost have what they want: absolute control, an opening to bring down the shinobi world and remold it into whatever they choose, which in their eyes is a world where Taka's will is absolute and we have no free choice. They have what they need to do this, magical relics called Chakra Gems that if brought together can give one person the power of a god. We know that they don't have all seven of these gems, but they have at least three, including ones that can bring back the dead and control our minds, turning ourselves, even our dearly departed, into living puppets to do their will."

If Shinachiku had stopped to lookout the unbroken window he would have seen the entire village standing still. Terrified civilians and very nervous shinobi alike (around whom the villagers were getting uncomfortable around) were hanging on every word, many of them just struggling to compute everything the boy was saying to them.

"Taka are a threat not just to Konoha, but to our entire world. They've framed my parents and taken them prisoner, they've taken over the Kazekage's mind and made him their pawn, they _would_ have done the same to the other kages had we not intervened, they've even brought two people very dear to me back from the dead and made them their slaves. And that goes without saying everything that might have done to other people's lives in the process. If you allow them to get away with their plans then Taka will be able to get away with destroying anything that stands in their way...Unless we stop them."

Uragi was saying and doing nothing, allowing what he already knew had to be occurring. This broadcast was going throughout the village, which meant that Anbu Black Ops teams were already taking point on rooftops surrounding the Hokage Tower, poised for the opportune moment to strike.

"To those of you hearing this who have families and loved ones that you do not wish to see get hurt, I implore you to _please_ take shelter and protect those you love. But for those of you who are still loyal to your village, who cannot be corrupted like sadly several of your teammates have, I urge you all to please stand up and fight! Fight for your freedom! Fight for your home! Help us to weed out Taka and make our village what it used to be...Do as my father would do, keep the Will of Fire alive...I know I'm asking a lot of you, and I may not have done enough to earn your trust. The price of freedom is high, it always has been. But its a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one then so be it!"

He paused only for a moment as he allowed the weight of all he said to sink in before his smiled to himself in pride. "...But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

With that, Shinachiku took his finger off the button, ending his transmission.

* * *

There was an odd mix of silence and panicked ruckus that came over the townsfolk after they heard the unexpected transmission. That atmosphere was felt everywhere, including inside of Konoha Hospital, where Tsunade and her team now knew that they were going to have to work really fast or else they were all going to be royally screwed over by the inevitable security that was going to be searching the hospital from top to bottom.

"Shizune!" the Slug Queen called out. "Stay focused! We don't have much time left!"

"Hai m'lady!"

They set to work twice as hard as before on the antidote while Burandon, Guy and Hanami stood there and smiled at Shinachiku's speech.

'Splendid words Shinachiku!' Guy thought with a giant smile. "The Springtime of Youth is strong in you boy!"

'Well done Shina!' Burandon thought with pride. 'And don't worry! what ever happens We're with you until the end!'

Even Tsunade could not help but smirk at the boy's speech as she kept focused on her work. 'Nice speech kid; you might make a good ninja yet.'

Shizune smiled too. 'Hang in there Shina.'

And then there was dear Hanami, who smiled proudly throughout her big brother's entire speech. She was so proud of him, he sounded just like the natural leader she always knew he was...But after the speech was over she then became nervous.

"Oniichan, please be safe..."

* * *

In the bowels of the prison, Kurenai and her teams were also caught up in their friend's words, even Ōkami who so often thought the boy could be annoying.

But they had no time to dwell on it because, unfortunately, now that Taka has been forced out of the shadows, this meant that their job was going to become much more difficult.

* * *

On the streets of Konoha, Yamato and his team were getting really tense. This was it. This was the signal they'd been waiting for. Soon all of the chaos was going to go down and they needed to do what they could to minimize the damage.

"Stay alert Ino-Shika-Cho!" he said. "Things are about to get—"

Shikadai instinctively finished the sentence for him. "Troublesome."

No more words being said, the four ninja got themselves poised for the turning point that was soon to come.

* * *

"You lying, two-faced son of a bitch!"

Darui was not holding back his fury at the old man, who merely scoffed it off with a frown.

"You brought us here to make us your puppets!" Kurotsuchi shouted. "The Hidden Stone Village will have your head for this!"

"Release us and the Kazekage at once!" Chōjūrō demanded.

"And tell me," Shinachiku said and he pulled out his favorite kunai and aimed it at the old man's head, "Where are my parents?!"

Sarada, with anger equal to his own, pulled out her own kunai and aimed it at the traitor as well. "And mine?!"

Uragi did not get to say anything as there was a sudden spree of audible pops that whipped through the air, through the broken window. They were sounds that the five heroes were able to recognize instantly and so they used their ninja speed to dodge out of the way.

Anbu snipers fired syringe darts filled with Taka's red serum into the Hokage's office. Kakashi, Konohamaru, Shinachiku, Sarada and Sunaka were all lucky enough to dodge them...but the same could not be said for some of their other guests.

Chōjūrō, his bodyguard, Darui, Omai, Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi were all struck with the serum. The fluid went into their bloodstream nearly instantly, and its effects were quickly taking hold. And no sooner had that happened than a squad of well-timed and well-trained Anbu Black Ops literally kicked the door to the Hokage's office wide open and immediately engaged the three kage's and their bodyguards. The kages were naturally shocked that their chakra was not working, symptoms that reminded them of something they had seen long ago at Naruto's wedding.

Having no time to figure out how their ninjutsu weren't working, they were instead forced to resort to good old fashioned taijutsu and were doing the best they could with both their fists and their weapons armed. But more and more Anbu were filing in by the second; it was increasingly staring to look like a loosing battle.

This distraction was just the opportunity that Uragi needed, as Kakashi and Konohamaru were forced to loosen up on their grip on him to dodge the attack, giving him just the opening he needed to the break free and whip out a quick kunai for his defense against them, his three chakra gems still in his possession.

This was also the distraction that Gaara needed to break free of his daughter's grip, and her momentary distraction loosened her sand enough for him to summon his own sand from his own gourd.

"SAND WAVE!"

A tidal wave of sand erupted from Gaara's gourd and washed over the five heroes, the sheer force of the wave powerful enough to break to the remaining glass windows and flowing out, carrying the five of them with it to the ground below.

Simultaneously, Gaara also directed some of his sand to the kages and their bodyguards, who were still distracted with fighting off the Taka agents in Anbu disguises. Gaara wasn't playing any games as he let loose with all of his sand, enough to nearly drown them all before he hardened into solid stone and pummeled them into submission. When they were eventually knocked out, Anbu quickly handcuffed them all and robbed them of their weapons.

Shinachiku and the others were not aware of the fates of the kages however, because as they were falling to the ground from the tower, they could hear a loud explosion going off inside the village itself, timed nearly exactly with their falling out of the office glass.

When their free fall ended, they hit the ground hard as Gaara's sand flowed around them. The sand would have encased them, had Sunako not been quick-witted enough to counter the sand with her own.

"SAND SHIELD!"

As she formed a protective wall around them to shield her team from her father's sand, Shinachiku and Sarada turned in the direction of the village. Their mouths were aghast. That explosion they'd heard had triggered a massive fire in the middle of the village. Shinobi were already clashing with one another in the streets. Villagers were running screaming, fleeing for their lives.

It was everything they knew would have to happen today, but that did not stop the horror of it all from sinking in.

The two preteens unconsciously took each other's hands as they looked on. The civil war for Konoha's soul had begun.

* * *

Yep! No more waiting! The big battle has begun! But can our heroes manage to overcome such overwhelming odds? And where are Naruto, Sakura and the others anyway?

There were only two references in this chapter, but there were notable ones, particularly the second one. First of all, the scene where Burandon asks Tsunade and Shizune what they should do if they're discovered while they leave to fulfill their part of the plan, and Burandon's less-than-satisfied reaction to their answer, was directly inspired by a similar scene in _Star Wars_ (or _Episode IV: A New Hope_ if you need me to be specific). There's is a scene where Luke and Han are in their stormtrooper disguises aboard the Death Star and they are going to escort Chewie as their prisoner as part of a plan to get to the detention block where Leia is being held. Threepio asks Luke what he and Artoo should do if the stormtroopers find them and Luke and Han pretty much give the droids the exact same advice that Tsunade and Shizune do, and Threepio says the exact same line in response.

More importantly, this chapter contains one of my biggest homages yet to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The scene where Shinachiku speaks through the intercom to the entire village to expose Taka and their plans was was directly inspired by a similar, and similarly powerful, scene in the film. When Cap and his team invade the Triskelion during the launching day of Project: Insight, their first act is to enter the communications room and broadcast a message to all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents about Hydra's infiltration and exposing Alexander Pierce as their leader. Cap gives an inspirational speech very much like Shinachiku does here and it sets up everything that we see unfold in the final act of that story. At one point I had considered Naruto to be the one to give that inspirational speech, but that idea didn't last long because this is intended to by Shinachiku's story first and foremost, so _he_ needed to be the hero here.

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope you all enjoyed, I apologize again for the delay, and I thank you all again for your support.

Until next time, see ya!


	41. Chapter 39--The Battle Begins

Hey there friends, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

Before we get into this week's chapter, I want to take a moment to address something that has been bothering me lately. For a while now, I have been posting chapters and some person, whose identity is unknown and who is only listed as a guest, has been the first person to leave a review and they have been very slanderous and self-destructive. This person's reviews have said things like I am living a lie or that I am 'disgracing' Sarada's name or, worst of all, that I should kill myself for still being a NaruSaku fan. I have gone in and deleted each of this person's reviews, but I cannot block them for good because they are smart enough (or cowardly enough) to only respond as a guest.

Look, I respect everyone's opinion, if you are not a NaruSaku fan or do not like my story, that's fine. I am a freelance critic myself, so I am the last person who should chastise anyone for voicing their own opinion. But I have NEVER told someone to kill themselves just because I do not agree with their ideas! So, to whoever this mystery reviewer is, you are welcome to your opinion, but please respect me and the other readers of this story. We are all fans here that just want to use this fanfiction medium to share our ideas. And as for the Sarada thing, remember that I began writing this story soon after the series ended and at that time there were still a lot of rumors in the fan community that Karin may have been Sarada's true mother, before Gaiden came out and confirmed otherwise (after some serious manipulation I might add). By that point, I was already so deep into this story that to go back in and retcon a major character's name just did not seem worth it. Besides, this is an alternate reality from the canon ending, so whose to say that Sasuke's daughter in both realities can't have the same first name, even if their mother's are different?

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was a challenge for me to write, but it ended up being a lot of fun too.

So, with all that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 39: The Battle Begins**

The Jōnin Standby Station was filled with high ranking shinobi, same as any other day. The difference was that the presence of the visiting kage's for the summit had put everyone of high security alert. As shinobi for their village and members of the Great Shinobi Alliance, the leaf ninja held a responsibility to be at the ready for whatever threat came their way.

Mirai Sarutobi was no different; she was a Chūnin of her village, a member of the Sarutobi clan, and the daughter of two of the most esteemed ninja of their generation, one of whom was the son of the Third Hokage himself. But she was hiding something to herself that kept her on edge...She knew the truth. She knew that she and all of her friends had been deceived. She knew that her Hokage and his friends were framed by a force of evil that had hidden itself within her own village.

But she needed to wait, wait for the sign that Naruto and the others had promised her.

"Hey Mirai?"

The young girl was caught off guard by the unexpected voice. Turning her head, she was treated to the face of her teammate Hanzo, a handsome young man with reddish-blonde hair and black eyes.

"Oh, hey Hanzo," she said. "I didn't notice you there."

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Any word from sensei about our next mission yet?"

"Not yet. Lord Uragi hasn't told him anything so far as I know."

The girl nodded her head and went back to her own thoughts as the boy took a seat next to her. "Listen, I don't know if I ever got the chance to tell you, but I'm sorry about what happened to your mom. I must be hard being an orphan."

Mirai looked back to the boy with an expression of offense. "My mom's not dead!"

Hanzo raised his hands in the air in apology. "Gomen! Gomen! I didn't mean it that way!"

"Then what the hell did you mean?!"

"I just—I mean, umm..."

Mirai's thoughts got the better of her once again as she calmed down and leveled her head. "Gomen Hanzo. I know what you're trying to say. Sorry I snapped at you like that."

The two friends stat there quietly as the other shinobi in the station went about their business. and then they were cut off by the sudden sound of static echoing through the room, followed by a very young voice:

"Attention all citizens of Konohagakure, this is Shinachiku Uzumaki, son of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. I'm sure many of you have heard about me and I know you've heard a lot about my parents over the past few days. Some of you have even been ordered to hunt them down. But I think its time for you to know the truth..."

The others in the station were all stopped in their tracks at the young Genin's unexpected message, waiting with baited breath to hear whatever he had to say. But for Mirai Sarutobi, this was more than just an unexpected interruption, this was the sign she had been waiting for.

Focusing her mind and clenching her fist, she waited and listened for what the boy was about to say...

* * *

It was just like any other day at Ramen Ichikaku. Customers would arrive, take a seat at a booth or at a table in the restaurant, order their ramen or related food on their expanded menu, pay for their food, eat, and then go about their day. The crowd was getting to be a pretty good size today, a mix both of Leaf ninja and of civilians. Truth be told, they did not have an empty seat in the place.

Teuchi and Ayame were happily going about their jobs, the old man particularly excited since the kages were visiting today. It was a welcome distraction from the sadness he felt over what had happened with Naruto and Sakura and the lockdown that Uragi had imposed on the village after they'd escaped.

That was how the day had started, but right now, the atmosphere was very, very different and the radio that was set up to entertain customers suddenly stopped playing music and instead the old man and his lovely adult daughter heard a very familiar voice demand the attention of everyone in the village, and shinobi and civilian alike all listened in as Shinachiku promised to reveal some terrible truth...

"Our village isn't what we thought it was, it's been taken over by _Taka_. Not the Taka that my godfather Sasuke Uchiha led during the war, but a much larger, secret society that has stolen their name to frame them for their crimes and to pervert the twisted beliefs my uncle might have had at one point as a younger man. I tell you this because Taka is inside our village right now, and have been among us in secret for the last seventeen years. Even worse, our Interim-Hokage, Uragi Rimonō, is one of their leaders."

There was a stunned silence in the entire restaurant, the only noises that could be heard were the clanging of spoons and chopsticks onto the floor by shocked and utterly terrified customers. What those civilians weren't able to see were a few dangerous and threatening glances made by couple of Leaf shinobi in the restaurant.

For Teuchi's part, he and Ayame were in a state of total shock, and without saying a word they both knew that they were going to need to do something to get this crowd under control, or get people to safety if things took a turn for the worst.

In the old man's head, he could not help a selfish thought from coming to mind, 'And was only a few months away from retirement.'

And then the real devastating news came when their newest favorite customer continued his speech: "Many of our village's ninja and Anbu Black Ops are Taka as well. We don't know how many there are, but we know they're here. They could be standing right next to you."

That did it. That killed everything. The tension was so sharp one could literally hear a pin drop if it were to fall on the floor. Virtually every civilian in the place was frozen in terror of the shinobi that were among them having their lunch, and the shinobi themselves were trading nervous glances to one another. Some of those ninja were even getting their weapons ready...

* * *

Classes in the Academy building were frozen solid as dozens of young students and their ninja instructors were forced to sit there and listen to the voice coming from the loudspeaker. Many of the kids could barely make heads or tales of what they were hearing, and those that could were terrified of the implications of it and what it could mean.

The teachers on the other hand, they were trained shinobi and they knew full well what all of this meant. They were especially concerned upon hearing that anyone among their ranks could be with the enemy. _Anyone!_ And they hung on every word as the recent graduate of this Academy exposed more and more of this secret conspiracy:

"With the Kage Summit happening today they almost have what they want: absolute control, an opening to bring down the shinobi world and remold it into whatever they choose, which in their eyes is a world where Taka's will is absolute and we have no free choice. They have what they need to do this, magical relics called Chakra Gems that if brought together can give one person the power of a god. We know that they don't have all seven of these gems, but they have at least three, including ones that can bring back the dead and control our minds, turning ourselves, even our dearly departed, into living puppets to do their will."

As the children tried to make sense of what they were being told and their teachers got themselves on alert as well, they were unaware of the already marching footsteps coming from down the hallway toward the classrooms...

* * *

The Konoha Library was a place of learning, a place where ninja and villager alike went to gain knowledge and to better themselves. Well, today those people got more knowledge than they'd bargained for. The words of Shinachiku Uzumaki had been a massive blow to everyone, nobody saw it coming. Moegi and Udon were among them.

They had both come in here to do some research for a mission given to them within the village, but that was all put on hold as soon as the message started playing. They knew the boy well, not just as the son of the Seventh Hokage, but as the star pupil of their old friend Konohamaru. They knew that this boy had a troublesome, prankster phase when he was younger, but he was a good kid and a promising young ninja at heart. In their own hearts, they knew that if he was the one saying these things, as horrific as they may seem, then they needed to be prepared for a fight.

They, and everyone else in the library, continued listening as he continued speaking:

"Taka are a threat not just to Konoha, but to our entire world. They've framed my parents and taken them prisoner, they've taken over the Kazekage's mind and made him their pawn, they _would_ have done the same to the other kages had we not intervened, they've even brought two people very dear to me back from the dead and made them their slaves. And that goes without saying everything that they might have done to other people's lives in the process. If you allow them to get away with their plans then Taka will be able to get away with destroying anything that stands in their way...Unless we stop them."

Turning to the entrance to the library, the two former members of Team Ebisu saw a squadron of Anbu Black Ops entering the building, all of them heavily armed.

There were no words shared between them, only a silent nod to one another as the pig-tailed woman cracked her neck and the man adjusted his glasses and dried some leakage that threatened to come out of his nose.

The streets of Konoha were fair teeming with villagers and Leaf ninja that were spellbound, and very nervous, over the boy's speech. That nervousness and fear that the villagers felt around the ninja on the street only increased as the boy reached the end of his unanticipated speech.

"To those of you hearing this who have families and loved ones that you do not wish to see get hurt, I implore you to _please_ take shelter and protect those you love. But for those of you who are still loyal to your village, who cannot be corrupted like sadly several of your teammates have, I urge you all to please stand up and fight! Fight for your freedom! Fight for your home! Help us to weed out Taka and make our village what it used to be...Do as my father would do, keep the Will of Fire alive...I know I'm asking a lot of you, and I may not have done enough to earn your trust. The price of freedom is high, it always has been. But its a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one then so be it! ...But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

...It was only seconds later that people on the street started running and screaming for their lives as fully armed ninja pulled out their weapons and started threatening people.

Shikadai saw this and got into position with his team. "Yep, this is going to be troublesome all right."

"Hey Shikadai," Chōchō asked, "how exactly are we supposed to tell the good guys from the bad guys anyway?"

"If they're trying to kill you, then they're bad."

"I'd say that's a fair assumption to make," Inojin stated matter-of-factly.

Seeing the early chaos for himself, Yamato sighed and got into position to use his Wood Style techniques. "Well...This is where the fun begins..."

* * *

The air was thick with heated tension as the Hokage's son finished his sudden speech. No one could bring themselves to say a word as a twenty one-man squad of Anbu filed into the Jōnin standby Station. The ninja were fully armed, grim faced, and clearly not here to mess around.

The captain of the Anbu squad pushed his way to the front of the group and addressed everyone in dead seriousness. "Attention! The Hokage and his guests are under attack. You are ordered to come with us to the Hokage Tower and help us to halt the attacks of these terrorists. This is a direct order from Lord Uragi himself."

There was a silence in the room as none of the shinobi in the station were sure exactly what to do. Should they take these direct orders from their current leader, or should they believe the story that Naruto's son had told them. A couple of the ninja present were unconsciously reaching for their weapons as beads of sweat started pouring down their brows.

The Anbu captain, on the other hand, was in no mood for such indecisiveness. "Is there a problem?" He got no response, save for a few cold, suspicious stares. _"Is there a problem?!"_

The captain's raised voice and harsh tone did nothing to get a reaction out of anyone...almost anyone.

Mirai Sarutobi stood up from her position and looked the captain in the eye as she spoke for the rest of them. "Captain sir, with all due respect to Lord Uragi..." The girls expression changed from neutral to a confident, cocky smirk. "I'm afraid we're currently under Shinachiku Uzumaki's orders."

"Shinachiku Uzumaki is only a Genin, he is not the Hokage—"

"But he _is_ the Hokage's son! And that good enough for most of us."

"Lord Seventh is a traitor—"

"Is he?! Then how do you explain the sudden accusations of them being traitors, accusations to which we were never aloud to see the evidence? _Or_ your locking all of his allies in prison suspiciously. _Or_ sending me to guard such high-ranking prisoners despite only being a Chūnin? _Or_ what you Taka bastards did to my _mother?!_ _Or_ sightings of the Fourth Hokage and his wife attacking Naruto and his friends in the Land of Whirlpools?!"

There was an audible gasp from everyone when they heard that last part. If that was true, then it would prove the nonsense the boy had said over the intercom about magic gems that can control minds and raise the dead.

"That kind of talk is treasonous Sarutobi," the captain said as he got out his katana blade. He then shocked everyone by grabbing a ninja of equal rank as Mirai and holding his sword to her throat. "Now, everyone come with us to the Hokage Tower and do your duty and no one needs to get hurt."

Mirai Sarutobi did not hesitate to be the first to act. She whipped out her kunai and the aimed it directly at the captain's own throat, barely drawing blood. Her actions instantly sparked the rest of the Anbu to draw their own weapons, as did every other shinobi in the room.

It was a full-blown standoff to which even the slightest misstep could set off a blood bath.

"Like I said," Mirai stated with her kunai drawn, "Hokage's son's orders."

The captain glared at the young kunoichi as he tightened his grip on the Chūnin in his arms. "You picked the wrong side Sarutobi." He pressed his katana harder against his captive's throat, drawing a trickle of blood in doing so.

Mirai did not flinch and she held her ground. "Depends on where you're standing."

"I agree."

The girl felt her heart stop as anther kunai pressed itself against the back of her own neck. It practically broke her heart once she realized who it was.

"Hanzo...Why?"

"We all pick our sides Mirai, and I picked the one I believe in."

"But Konoha—?"

"Will be better off after we've achieved our goal and accomplished what we need to. Now _please_, drop your weapon and come with us."

"I'd rather die you son of a bitch!"

Hanzo closed his eyes and sighed. "I really hoped you would have been smarter than this Mirai."

"You too."

Hanzo lunged forward to make his killing blow, but he was a split second too short so that she could use her free hand to knock his arm out of the way. She then, near-simultaneously, jabbed her own kunai into the throat of the Anbu captain, doing what she needed to do to free the captive before the Taka double agent got the chance to take his hostage's life.

This set off a full blown melee assault as everyone in the room erupted into a taijutsu and ninjutsu assault. Parries were made, jutsu were cast, severe wounds were had, and yes, some lives were lost.

Mirai needed to put what was going on around her out of mind as she fought for her own life in this unrelenting mob. Slashing and blocking with her kunai, she was doing well for her level of training, but as a Sarutobi it seemed that the Taka-aligned Anbu were singling her out as someone they needed to gang up on. Fortunately, she did have a little escape tactic she could draw upon for situations like these.

"GENJUSTSU: FLOWER PEDAL ESCAPE!"

Casting a genjutsu technique she had learned from her mother, Mirai's body turned into a flurry of flower pedals that surrounded her Taka attackers. She rematerialized again in a different part of the room, only to be confronted by her former friend.

With regret in her eyes, Mirai got out her most distinctive weapon, a pair of trench knives. Focusing her chakra, the knives began to glow with her aura.

"It didn't have to be this way Hanzo."

The boy got his kunai back out and stared at her in his own regret, this time infusing his kunai with his own chakra to counter hers. "Maybe it did...?"

Their was a void, a pause as the two of them stared one another down, each one blocking out the chaos that was unfolding around them. This was a point of no return, of no going back, they had each chosen their sides. This wasn't like Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, two friends who fell apart because one of them allowed himself to be led astray for some personal agenda. No, Hanzo was lying to her, lying to everyone, from the very beginning.

With no other words to be said, the two former teammates charged at one another and their weapons clashed...

* * *

"Alright everybody," Teuchi said to all of his patrons, "Lets not panic. This is a place of business and I won't have any roughhousing in here—"

"Hey!" one of the shinobi in the restaurant shouted, "Where do you think you're going?!"

Indeed, two ninja were attempting to nonchalantly slip out of the restaurant as soon as the boy's transmission ended. Everyone else turned in their direction as they were forced to stop dead in their tracks.

It was a male and female ninja that had been caught; the female spoke for them. "We have an important mission to get back to, we left our money on the counter to pay for—"

"AAAGGGHHH!

A loud scream cut off the kunoichi's speech as her male partner apparently panicked and grabbed an innocent woman and held a knife to her throat.

"Let us out of here or she dies!"

As the villagers started gasping and panicking, the other ninja in the restaurant were quick to pull out their weapons to deal with the situation.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the woman shouted. "We can't expose ourselves like this!"

"We already _are_ exposed! We need to get out of here and this is the only way!"

One of the shinobi edged his way closer to the traitorous ninja. "Let the woman go and you'll stand trial for your actions."

"Yeah right! We're no fools! No, she's coming with us until we get out of here and regroup with our unit. If anyone even thinks about following us—UGH!"

The traitor was cut off because he'd been knocked out cold and fell straight to the floor. To the surprise of everyone there, it was not any of the shinobi that were responsible for the attack, but old man Teuchi himself. He had managed to sneak out from the counter and whack the ninja in the head with a frying pan.

This distraction allowed the woman to quickly get out of her entrapment before her wrist was grabbed by the female Taka spy.

"Let go of me!" the woman demanded.

"Sorry sister, but my partner was right; I need an escape and right now you're my ticket!"

No sooner had she said that then she felt a tap in her shoulder. Instinctively turning her head to see who it was, she was taken aback when Ayame quickly laid a super hard punch straight to the kunoichi's jaw. The Leaf ninja didn't hesitate to swoop in and cuff the two traitors on the spot.

"Thank you," the woman said in relief.

"No problem," Ayame said. "You don't go so long serving food to so many ninja without learning how to punch."

"Is everyone alright?" Teuchi shouted the crowd. They all nodded their heads. "Good. Everybody start running to your homes and take shelter."

The patrons proceeded to do so as they rushed out the door into the streets, the proven loyal Leaf ninja guarding them as they made their escape.

The old man watched as his customers left the restaurant, leaving him and his daughter alone. He turned his head when he felt Ayame place her hand on his shoulder in sympathy.

"Dad?"

The old man sighed. "Come on, we need to get home. I can tell that Konoha is in for a _really_ bad day."

* * *

The class of children were shocked out of their seats when a small squadron of Anbu Black Ops marched straight up to the door and slammed it open.

"Everyone!" one of the Anbu shouted. "The village have been compromised. My squadron has mobilized to escort all of you to a nearby safe house for your own protection."

The Jōnin instructor in the class got on the defensive as he pulled out his kunai and waved his hand to the class sitting in the stands. "Don't move children!"

"Sir!" the Anbu shouted again, "We need to secure these children!"

"My students are safe with me! We don't need the trust of any Anbu right now! I'll be taking these kids somewhere where I know they'll—"

"Oh screw this! NINJA ART: HIDDEN SHADOW SNAKE HAND!"

The voice came not from the Anbu that was speaking but from a voice further in the back. No sooner had the voice spoken than a enormous snake shot out from the squad and ensnared the instructor, quickly biting him and injecting some sort of poison into his body that quickly knocked him out.

The children, predictably, were panicking now and it took the immediate retraction of the snake and the emergence of who had poisoned their instructor to calm them down.

"A-Anko-sensei?" one of the students questioned in bewilderment.

"Yeah, that's me," the middle-aged tokobetsu Jōnin said with a smug thumbs up. "Don't worry kids, I give you my word that you're all safe with us!"

"But...But sensei—?"

"Your sensei was Taka. We've found the evidence to prove it."

Yet another voice came out from the Anbu squad, and it belonged to a man whose age equaled that of Anko's, a man with black hair and a notable scar across his nose.

"Iruka-sensei!" several of the students shouted in joy and relief.

"Don't be afraid kids," the old teacher said, "Anko and I gathered these men ourselves. We did so as soon as Lord Seventh and Lady Sakura was framed and forced to leave the village. We both knew that something was seriously amiss and we also knew that not _every_ Anbu could be in on this. So we gathered men that we knew we could trust to help us in case something happened. And now that Shinachiku made his speech, that time is now."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Anko snapped. "This is all well and good, but in case you haven't noticed Iruka, we've still got _a lot_ of kids to save and not much time to do it." She then turned back to the young Academy students still confused and afraid in their seats. "Well?! What the hell are you brats still sitting there for?! Lets go!"

That outburst was enough to the get the kids out of their seats and rush down the steps to the door. The Anbu took possession of the kids and filed out of the classroom, Iruka and Anko trailing behind to watch the children's backs.

"You think we'll all make it through this one?" Anko whispered.

"I think Shinachiku and the kids will do fine. They've been trained well."

"They're just Genin; they're _kids_."

"So were we once, so were Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, all of them." The old man let out a sigh as he accepted the truth. "We'll do our part, but this is their fight Anko, not ours."

The former snake apprentice smirked, "I can see why your students liked you so much, you've got quite a way with words."

"Thanks. Now come on, we've got a whole Academy of kids to go save."

* * *

The Anbu were storming into the library, some of them already drawing their weapons anticipating a fight. Other shinobi that were in the room took notice of this and drew their own weapons.

Moegi and Udon also got out their weapons as the civilians in the building were panicking and ducking under tables for their own safety.

"Drop your weapons!" one of the Anbu demanded. "We have come to secure this building and it's knowledge for Lord Uragi."

"That's not going to happen," Moegi stated outright. "The books and scrolls in this library, as well all of these people are under our protection!"

"Stand in our way miss and you will be deemed a traitor to you entire village."

Udon raised his own voice defiantly. "The only traitors I see here are _you_!"

"I'm going to count to five—"

Moegi used her ninja stealth to make a quick dash over to the Anbu, pressing her kunai into his throat. "_I'm_ only going to count to _three!_"

The other Anbu were quick to raise their weapons to come to their teammate's aid, while the other, non-Taka Leaf ninja raised their own in defense.

"Leave this place and spare all these people, or suffer the justice of the Hidden Leaf Village," Udon threatened.

There was an extremely tense silence in the library as the trained ninja kept at their standoff. Time felt like an eternity until the Anbu who Moegi was currently prepared to kill waved his hand to signal the others to stand down.

The Anbu lowered their weapons and Moegi allowed her prisoner to stand back up, but never taking her eyes off of him.

As the Anbu started filing out of the library, their squad leader stopped and turned back to face them. "You Leaf ninja should realize though, Taka always gets what it wants. And if we can't have it..."

The Anbu slammed a piece of paper onto the ground with a terrifyingly familiar kanji emblazoned upon it. "...No one will."

The room went erratic with fear at the realization of what it was. As one of the Leaf ninja shouted, "PAPER BOMB!"

"Everybody out!" Moegi shouted at the top of her lungs.

The two friends and the loyal Leaf ninja gathered all the civilians they could as the traitorous Anbu made their escape into the village and the city. They did their best, but time was short.

Finally, with what civilians and shinobi they could get, they escaped the library and got out the door before the paper bomb went off.

_BOOM!_

The building did not explode, but a huge side of the library crumbled and caught on fire. The explosion itself was loud enough to be heard through to the entire village, only stirring further chaos into the already chaos-stricken streets.

Moegi and Udon checked on their comrades and the people they had saved, thanking the heavens that they had made it out.

But alas, they did so with a heavy heart as it was clear that for all the lives they'd saved, chances were more than likely that a number of Leaf ninja and innocent people were either dead or still trapped inside...

"Everyone!" Udon called out. "Civilians return home to you families and stay off the streets. Leaf ninja, we need to get back in there and look for survivors. Everybody move. Now!"

* * *

"WOOD RELEASE: GREAT FOREST TECHNIQUE!"

Yamato's arms changed into gigantic trees that rapidly grew and lengthened at quick speed. The trees forked into many branches that knocked away and even impaled many Anbu attackers that charged at him.

He shouted to his current Genin team, "We need to hold these attackers off!"

"Got it!" Chōchō acknowledged. "PARTIAL MULTI-SIZE TECHNIQUE!"

The girl's hand grew several sizes larger in a instant, which she proceeded to use to swat away at attacking Anbu and Leaf ninja, as well as crush them, strangle them, or throw them several yards away.

Beside her, Inojin was deflecting his attacker's kunai with his sword. Then, finding an opening, he whipped out his sketchbook and ink pin, quickly scribbling a powerful beast on the paper.

"NINJA ART: SUPER BEAST IMITATING DRAWING!"

The creature that the pale-skinned blonde had drawn, a ferocious winged lion-type creature, leaped off the page and came to life as soon as the chakra-infused pen left the page. The boy still had not mastered the finer qualities of elegant, rounded art that his father had, so his creation was characterized by much sharper, straighter lines.

The ink creature attacked his opponents to aid the team while Inojin continued fighting, getting the jump on a Taka-shinobi that was charging directly at him sword drawn.

"MIND BODY SWITCH TECHNIQUE!"

The boy's form went limb as his consciousness left his body and took over the mind of his current attacker. At that moment, the Taka agent seemingly went mad and started slashing away at his own teammates.

The ink creature fought off more enemies as Shikadai stood guard over his friend's currently comatose form.

"WIND STYLE: SHADOW POSSESSION EXPANSION JUTSU!"

The boy proceeded to cast his clan's signature shadow technique, but there was a unique catch. Thanks to his mother's genes and adeptness in wind-based techniques, Shikadai was able to cast his shadow on a far greater attack range, as if he were allowing the wind itself to carry his shadow over multiple targets at once. With this, at least of dozen Taka shinobi began assaulting one another under Shikadai's direct control and strategic planning. It did help that he was the nephew of a world-renowned puppet master as well.

The body possession over, Inojin went back into his own body just as Chōchō smashed the enemy he'd been possessing with her enlarged fist.

"HUMAN BULLET TANK!"

Turning herself into a giant rolling death ball, the girl proceeded to quite literally roll over the very same enemies that Shikadai had been manipulating to his advantage, the boy being alert enough to let go at the right moment so that his teammate's assault would not do damage to him as well.

As the fighting continued, an Anbu got a lucky hit and cast a water style jutsu that proved too much for the ink beast, which then disassembled into giant glob of ink as a result.

Inojin was not one to be deterred however. He quickly got out his sketchbook again and drew another creature, a three-headed dragon with large bat wings.

"SUPER BEAST MENTAL PROJECTION JUTSU!"

Something truly unique happened. The creature disappeared from the page, but it did not come to full-figured life. Instead, it went straight into the mind of the boy's attacker, terrifying and torturing him from inside his brain like a sudden nightmare he could not awake from.

"AAAAAGGGHHHH!" The Anbu writhed on the floor in agony as the dragon tortured his mind. By the time Inojin had cancelled out the jutsu, the victim was essentially a brain dead shell with glossed eyes and a line of drool leaking out of his mouth.

"You know," Shikadai said to his teammate, "it still freaks me out that you ever found a way to bring your mom and dad's techniques together for a jutsu _that_ scary."

Inojin did not respond in words, only a smile, as he got his sword back out and continued fighting.

Yamato had spotted one of the enemies trying to throw a kunai with an explosive tag wrapped around it, so he ordered the kids to gather around him as he created a wood shield to block the explosion.

"Yamato-sensei," Chōchō asked "how much longer can we stay here without reinforcements?"

Shikadai answered for the old man. "We stay as long as it takes. Ōkami and his team are too busy looking for our parents and Burandon and Hanami are tied up at the hospital."

"And Shinachiku and Sarada are busy with Uragi too," Inojin pointed out.

The Nara boy scowled in annoyance, "Yeah, that too."

"Focus!" Yamato shouted and the wood shield fell and more enemies filed in. "Here they come!"

* * *

Inside Konoha Hospital, Tsunade and the others could hear the noise of doors being kicked in and nurses and patients screaming. The noise was coming further and further down the hallway. It was only a matter of time before the enemy found them.

"Alright listen up!" Tsunade shouted, not taking time for tact. "Burandon, you and Hanami find a place to hide. Her safety is your top priority."

"But m'lady—?"

"Do as I say kid!"

Even Burandon, the sparkling embodiment of the Springtime of Youth that he was, was not willing to talk back against Tsunade when she was in a yelling mood. So he nodded and took the pink-haired girl's hand as they found a locker in the hospital room they were hiding in that was large enough to hold them both.

About that time the experiments finally came to an end and the antidotes were complete. Shizune breathed a huge sigh of relief at that. "Thank goodness."

"Shizune!" the Slug Sannin shouted, startling her former apprentice. "Hide that antidote immediately! We can't allow Taka to find it or everything we've worked for is ruined!"

"Hai!"

Shizune quickly got out a spare scroll that she had hidden on her person and unraveled it. She quickly sealed the antidote into the scroll for hiding. She then pulled back her sleeve to reveal a wrist-mounted device that held within it several senbon laced with poison.

Tsunade herself focused her chakra into her hands to use all her chakra enhanced strength for the upcoming attack. She did not release her seal, but she was fully prepared to do so if that was what it took to win the day.

Guy, meanwhile, was not going to be left helpless today. Even since his accident he had studied the sadly all-too-often overlooked or under appreciated art of Kurumaisu Jutsu, self defensive techniques that one may use from in a wheelchair. He may not be able to contribute much for a full frontal attack anymore, but he did have a couple of hidden surprises just in case.

Inside the locker, Hanami was getting nervous. She did not want anything bad to happen to her friends just because of her.

"Fear not Hanami," Burandon whispered to her as quietly as he could. "We will make it through this battle yet."

Rumbling could be heard on the outside, the Taka reinforcements were getting closer and closer. Finally it was close enough; they had slammed their hands on the door loudly demanding response.

"Who's in there! Open this door!"

The Taka shinobi on the other side apparently were in no mood to even wait for a response and they quickly kicked in the door and stormed in. Shizune was quick on the draw and released her senbon that fired directly into the first wave of attackers, poisoning them instantly. She had briefly considered using her Poison Mist to deal with even more of them, if not all of them, but she quickly retracted that idea because, being a medical ninja and being inside a hospital, she could not risk the possibility of the poisonous vapors getting loose into the ventilation and somehow being inhaled by any poor unfortunate civilians or patients that happened to be in the building at the moment. So instead, she got out some poison-dipped kunai for her own defense instead.

Tsunade started blocking and punching into her attackers as they filed in left and right. Like her former apprentice, she needed to keep her full abilities in check because she was in a populated building and the last thing she wanted was to let too much of her legendary strength loose indoors or else the entire building could come down upon them. Nevertheless, she was still hitting her opponents with probably more force than any of them have ever felt in their lives, and number of them may very well have died from their injuries.

Guy was on the defensive. Ninja were gunning at him at a rapid rate, singling out the old, crippled taijutsu master as an easy target. Little were they expecting for Guy to be a master at blocking and flipping opponents to the ground even from his compromised position. He successfully blocked ninja thrusting kunai and swords at him, and was even able to deflect blows coming at him both from in front and behind at the same time. Once they were knocked to the floor, he would lay a well-pressured punch or karate chop to the head or the neck to knock out the enemy. When he had the opportunity, he would also take full advantage of his one good leg and lay a hard kick into his opponents as well.

The scary thing about this display was that he was fighting off so many of them and was doing it with seemingly little effort, and he was an old man that could not even use both of his legs! Remembering that this was the same man who long ago opened all of the Eight Gates to blow a gigantic hole into the side of Madara Uchiha himself, they were quite intimidated when Guy glared at them while he reached for something attached to his wheelchair.

It looked like a simple metal rod, but then Guy broke the rod and it split into two even halves connected together by a coil. This rod had become a pair of solid metal nunchaku before their eyes that the old man twirled around with complete focus like a true master.

Once Guy was done with his little show, he merely stared down his opponents and asked: "Who else wants a piece?!"

* * *

Kurenai was on the ropes, fighting off waves of Taka shinobi in the dank darkness of the prison. The numbers were starting to cause her some grief even for her level of experience. The worst part of all of this was that because they were indoors, that meant she was significantly limited in what flora genjutsu she could cast.

That being said, she was able to lure many of them into a special trap that she had ready for just such a moment.

"Got you."

She poke simply as she had lured a sizable number of Taka agents into a large circle that had been lined with paper bombs. Triggering the seal, the wave of explosions went off, causing the level they were standing on to collapse beneath their feet and forcing the ninja to fall to the ground several floors below, getting crumbled by the falling debris on the way down.

The children under her guidance had little opportunity to pay notice to their current master's performance however, as they were still caught up in the seriousness of their own fights.

Bagu was shielding his body from a literal barrage of kunai by creating a dome composed of his own insects. He created a clone of himself with his insects that fought side-by-side with him before it evaporated into smaller bugs again, which then swarmed the enemy and attached themselves all over many of their bodies, biting, poisoning and paralyzing them.

"SECRET TECHNIQUE: INSECT SPHERE!"

Bagu's insects entrapped many of the prison guards that attacked them in a sphere of his bugs. Within seconds the bugs had enclosed them in their sphere and proceeded to drain them of their chakra.

"SECRET TECHNIQUE: BULLET STING BARRAGE!"

The boy then broke out a special offensive technique that he himself have been developing. From within the sleeves of his green jacket, a swarm of bees and wasps flew out at rapid, bullet-like speed. The insect's stingers were specially coated to sap the chakra of their victims, or poison them, or both. It did require a large number of bees and wasps for any one target, but he had enough up his sleeve (literally) to take out an impressive amount of opposition. The one other drawback was that, like ordinary bees, their stingers came off their abdomens once used, thus turning their attack into a self-sacrifice on the insect's part.

Meanwhile, Bagu's teammates the twins were standing back-to-back with their loyal ninken as they were surrounded by opposition. Nodding their heads in agreement, they both activated their kekki genki's in perfect synch.

"BYAKUGAN!"

Thee twins eyes could now see clearly in the darkness, able to make out the chakra networks of all of their enemies around them.

"Akamoro! Come on boy!"

"You too Akamiri!"

The two dogs came to the sides of their masters and together they underwent a transformation. The two dogs had transformed into identical copies of the twins via the Inuzuka clan's Beast Human Clone Technique. Glowing with chakra, the four heroes assumed all fours, the real twin's Byakugans still activated and their nails now becoming more claw-like and their teeth more fang-like, and the four of them all pounced on the enemy like a pack of wild animals.

The twin's fusion of Inuzuka and Hyūga clan techniques turned out to be a surprisingly formidable match. There was a ferocious hit-and-run strategy to the way they both moved, their transformed dogs following suit, but their Byakugan's gave then an added advantage of full visual sight of their enemy's chakra networks, so the quick and rapid sprints were directly targeted and the enemy's chakra points, which the two of them could puncture in rapid succession with the Hyūga clan's taijutsu style. Having studied under their parents for years, they both could leap from their rabid and primal fighting style into their elegant and precise one with virtually seamless effort of transition, reflecting the duel contrast of their upbringing expertly.

Plus, their Inuzuka clan DNA already granted them enhanced senses like an animal. But when you paired that with the visual awareness of the Byakugan...well, you have a pair of twin shinobi that you would be hard pressed to _ever_ manage to sneak up on!

Their Byakugan's still active, they called their dogs over to them, still in their transformed state, and together with them both twins performed one of their father's signature techniques fused with one of their mothers.

"EIGHT TRIGRAMS, SIXTY-FOUR PALMS! TWIN FANG PASSING FANG!"

Ōkami and Tsuki teamed up with Akamoro and Akamiri, respectively, and together both sets of partners spun in a coordinated manner at a ferocious speed to deliver a succession of powerful, bestial attacks that suddenly became precise and focused on close proximity, the blows aimed directly and the enemy's chakra points and the body's pressure points. The coming together of the twins and their partners, mixed with the added elegance of the Hyūga clan fighting style, made the display a fascinatingly bizarre cross between a brutal, animalistic assault and a synchronized dance.

When the smoke was cleared, a lot, and I do mean _a lot_ of Taka ninja were on the ground in a brutally beaten mess. The battle over, for the moment, the twins each deactivated their Byakugan's and both Akamoro and Akamiri returned back to normal.

"Good job boy!" Ōkami said enthusiastically betting his dog.

"Good girl Akamiri!" Tsuki praised her own dog and she leaped into her arms and licked her face.

"You know," Bagu said interrupting them, "with the way you two argue so often, its sometimes easy to forget just how well you two work together."

Something about what their friend just said stirred the male bravado back up in the male Inuzuka twin, as he folded his arms and huffed. "Hph! Don't get used to it!"

Tsuki frowned at her brother's behavior. She loved him, but he could be so darn stubborn sometimes. 'Why can't we have the kind of relationship that Shinachiku and Hanami have?'

"Kids!" Kurenai called out. "Let's keep moving. We still need to keep looking for the Seventh Hokage and your parents."

The three kids all shouted as one: "Hai Kurenai-sensei!"

* * *

Shinachiku and Sarada continued to look at the sprawling carnage that was happening around them. How did it come to this? Sure Shinachiku may have been the one that sent out that transmission, exposing Taka for who they really were, but for things to fall apart so much and so quickly!

"Hey!"

The boy was snapped back to reality at the sound of Sarada's voice. It was only then that both of them realized that they were still holding each other's hands. They quickly let go and blushed, looking away so neither of them could see the smile on each of their faces.

The kids were snapped out of it however when they heard and saw a mob of Leaf ninja bursting through the Academy gates. Kakashi and Konohmaru came to from their fall from the Hokage tower, shaking off the particles of sand that had covered them. Sunako heard the distraction too and turned to face it as the force of her father's sand finally died down, giving her freedom to lower her own Sand Shield and refocus herself on the current offensive.

Knowing that there was nothing else that could be done, the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl made eye contact before they each got out their weapons, Sarada a standard kunai, and Shinachiku his favorite kunai topped off with the orange, red and blue string tied at the base.

"You ready for this?" the girl asked the boy without even looking at him.

The boy stared ahead of him. The enemy was approaching, the village and city were in chaos, and their parents and friends were still unaccounted for. And yet, being here now, the enemy exposed and Sarada at his side, it was enough to give him some hope and confidence.

And so, his weapon in hand, he looked ahead of him and smiled as he answered her question with an all-too-familiar catchphrase: _"Believe it!"_

* * *

Well, what do you think? The battle is underway and the kids are stepping up to the plate. I hope I got you all on their side and convinced you that, even if they are not as strong or as developed as their parents, these kids can hold their own in a fight.

I have A LOT to talk about this time around, so lets get down to it. I had an idea for the structure in the first half of this chapter that I am rather proud of. We hear a repeat of Shinachiku's speech from the previous chapter, only this time we got to see other character's reactions to it as it was being broadcast, as well as some of the aftermath of those scenes. I was wondering if playing with time this way might confuse some of you, but I think it worked really well.

By the way, just in cast you didn't catch it, the explosion at the library is the same explosion that happens in the background as Shinachiku and the others fall out of the Hokage's office at the end of Chapter 38.

I'll get the references out of the way first. Yamato line after Shinachiku finishes his speech, "Here's were the fun begins...", was another reference to "Star Wars." In "A New Hope," Han Solo says it as the _Millennium Falcon_ is leaving Mos Eisley while being chased by an Imperial Cruiser and Han is setting the navi-computer for the jump to hyperspace. Years later (or years earlier?), in "Revenge of the Sith," Anakin Skywalker repeats the line during the space battle above Coruscant as he, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and their clone trooper squadron fly towards General Grievous's flagship on a mission to rescue Palatine.

There were also two more references, once again, to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The first was during the same scene with Yamato saying that line. When Chōchō asked how they were supposed to know the good guys from the bad guys, and Shikadai made his smartassed response, that was inspired by a similar conversation between Cap and the Falcon right as they were both going into battle.

The second "Winter Soldier" reference was that the scene in the Jōnin Standby Station, where Mirai holds her ground against the Taka captain, was directly based on the scene where Sharon Carter (Agent 13) points a gun at Brock Rumlow's (Crossbones's) head when the one S.H.I.E.L.D. techies finds the courage to do the right thing and refuses to launch the helicarriers. I loved this scene because of how tense and well acted it was by two supporting characters and even the guy playing the techie did a great job. From the very beginning I imagined Mirai in a role similar to what Sharon Carter played, not a hugely important character but a likable and strong one who gets to shine in this one powerful moment.

To play into the theme of not knowing who to trust, there were a couple of swerves in this chapter. Mirai's teammate turns out to be Taka, some of you might have seen that coming, but it was obviously a major blow for her, especially now that they are going to have their fight. Oh, and just a little useless commentary, that character was named after Hanzo Hasashi, a.k.a. Scorpion to all you Mortal Kombat fans.

Perhaps the bigger twist was that the kid's teacher turned out to be Taka instead of the Anbu squadron. I felt it was important to do that to make it clear that not every Anbu Black Op was a double agent, only a lot of them, just like a lot of regular Leaf ninja were Taka. I needed to put in characters we knew we could trust and since this scene was set in a school, I figured why not Iruka and Anko? I hope their appearance was a welcome surprise.

In speaking of bringing in characters, I bet you didn't expect to see Teuchi and Ayame get a heroic moment. That was a lot of fun to write, just to get a taste of the common man getting into the action of saving their village.

Also, I bet you didn't expect to see Moegi and Udon make an appearance either. That was fun to do too, especially since they were acting alone and without their friend at their side. It was admittedly a challenge since we know a lot more about what Konohamaru can do than what they can do, but its there for you to enjoy either way.

The most fun part about writing this chapter was getting to create some new jutsu for the kids. Its interesting that I had this idea at the start to give Shikadai a fusion of his dad's shadow jutsu and his mother's wind affinity to somehow expand the reach of his own shadow techniques. Apparently Kishimoto and I were of like mind because he apparently has an unnamed jutsu very similar to that in the Boruto movie, so I happily went with it.

With Inojin, I thought about how he could combine his dad's artist abilities with his mom's mental jutsu. I hit on this idea of what if he could draw something and then directly project his creation into his enemy's mind. That, I thought at least, was a terrifying idea and gave Inojin an amusing creep factor to boot.

Chōchō just uses her family's typical expansion jutsu; I could not think of an interesting way to combine Chōji's abilities with Kurai, and I guess Kishimoto couldn't either.

Bagu is also using typical Aburame clan techniques, but I did give him the new ability of the bee and wasp bullet technique. It was an amusing enough visual, and I am proud of the detail that the bees do die after they use their stingers, just like in real life.

The twins were a lot of fun to write. The fusion of the Inuzuka and Hyūga bloodlines is a deliberately ironic one because, as I feel I made very clear, they are so opposite, yet they also are hugely formidable when you put them together. Having twins also allowed for some cool composite-synchronized fighting as well.

We didn't get to see Burandon dish out the moves this time, unfortunately, but I suspect that he'll get to do something cool soon enough.

We DID, however, get to see Guy kick some ass! This is something I really don't think I sold very well in my descriptions, but there is a real life martial arts form called Kurumaisu Jutsu which is meant as a self defensive art for people in wheelchairs. You can look it up if you're interested in learning more.

I did, regrettably, have to hold back on some of the adult's fighting though, not just to avoid outshining the kids, but because I realized that some of their justu might be compromised because they were fighting indoors. Shizune cannot risk using her Poison Mist because what if a innocent patient ends up breathing it? Tsunade finds herself in a Superman-type inconvenience because she could do _far_ more harm than good if she used all her monster strength while inside the hospital, so she had to be very precise with how much force she was using. And Kurenai is best known for using flora-related genjutsu and where was she going to find any plants and trees inside the prison? Oh well, it still worked out I suppose.

Aright, I think that's the longest commentary I've done in a long time, so I'll stop here! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to see again for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	42. Chapter 40--Heartbreaking Battles

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with yet another chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

This is going to be yet another really big one with A LOT of things happening and a lot of story lines to keep track of. So I hope you guys can keep up, and I hope you all enjoy it.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 40: Heartbreaking Battles**

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

In several puffs of smoke up to ten shadow clones of Shinachiku Uzumaki came into existence and as one they all attacked the enemy with their creator. Obviously the added reinforcements were an enormous asset in the battle, with the boy and his clones hacking and slashing at the waves of Taka ninja that came their way.

Shinachiku and his clones likewise displayed their year's of ninja study and training with their parries and blocks, a testament to their above average talent for their age. Shinachiku himself would occasionally grapple the enemy into a choke hold and use his studies under his mother to target the enemy's pressure points and then use the limited taijutsu studies he had under his Aunt Hinata to puncture those pressure points, consequently disabling the enemy's movements.

Near him, Sarada Uchiha was using all of the training she herself had received under her mother and father to keep the enemy at bay. Incidentally, her fighting style seemed a bit more reckless and prone to causing bodily harm than her current teammate's was; not that she actually was, but the outsider looking in might make the mistake that she was more willing to take the enemy's life than Shinachiku was...A fair assessment since when comparing both of their father's, Naruto was more of a pacifist than Sasuke was.

There was another reason too, one that was never discussed between the two of them but which they both recognized and understood regardless. Unlike Shinachiku, who got to grow up in the village with his parents in an era of peace, Sarada had spent much of her childhood on the road with her parents and their friends, with their family having to fend for themselves on away missions and adapt to survive in the world. This meant that, unlike Shinachiku, Sarada had, at one point or another, been forced to take a life before.

"Shina!" Sarada called out, "Pull your clones back."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Not wanting to argue, the boy did just that as the girl focused her chakra and out of her body shot a series of adamantine sealing chains composed of her own chakra that locked onto only a handful of the enemy. Try as they might, the Taka double agents could do nothing to free themselves from their confinement.

She then made a few quick hand signs while they were still in that state, and then she cupped her hand around her mouth.

"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"

A literal flamethrower shot out of the girl's mouth, burning several of the enemy ninja alive. Shinachiku could feel the heat from the girl's attack even though he was standing a good distance away from her.

"Remind me never to piss her off," The boy said nonchalantly to one of his clones, whom merely nodded his head in agreement, a look of over exaggerated stupor plastered on his face.

The charred remains of the now dead ninja was enough to intimidate some of the enemy forces, but it would seem that their loyalty to their secret order was stronger than to even their own self-preservation.

"Don't give them an inch men!" one of the Taka ninja shouted. "These children are pushovers, no matter who their parents are! _We_ are the ones who will win the day! _We_ are the ones who will rebuild this world! _We_ are the ones who will break the shinobi system down and return this earth to its true era of piece! _We_ are the future!"

The ninja's speech got a standing ovation from his comrades, much to the disgust of the two Genin that were watching them.

The ninja then slammed his fist into his chest in his order's cultist salute, his men following his example. "Hail Taka!"

"HAIL TA—!"

"SAND COFFIN!"

The enemy ninja never got to finish their salute as they were suddenly swept up into a gigantic wave of sand, one that entrapped them and their rallying leader all in one fell swoop. The sand then hardened into a gigantic wall of solid sandstone that pressed tighter and tighter upon them all...Until, finally, their muffled cries of pain and agony were silenced by a hideous crunching sound and spurts of blood spraying out from between the cracks.

Shinachiku and Sarada turned their heads in horror at the person they knew was responsible for what just happened. They saw the cold stare as Sunako merely returned her sand back to its soft form, allowing the mangled, contorted mass of either dead or barely alive ninja to crumble to the ground in a heap.

Neither of them could say anything to their friend in response to her rather cold-hearted murder, so the sand shinobi spoke for herself. "If you're going to fight, then fight. Don't waste your opponent's time talking."

As Sunako used her sand to fly her to a different part of the battlefield, Shinachiku and Sarada looked at each other blankly before Sarada said, "You know, that girl can be scary sometimes."

"Yeah, reminds me of someone else I know."

"What was that?"

"Umm...nothing Sarada..." He was blushing as he retracted his statement in nervousness of the girl. But he quickly recovered his composure when he noticed something coming from the distance heading in their direction.

There were two ninja coming their way, swords and kunai drawn. Both of them were approaching from opposite directions.

"I take the one from the south, you the one from the north?"

Sarada nodded her head nonchalantly. "Fine by me."

The two Genin stood back-to-back as they focused their chakra into their hands. Shinachiku called one of his shadow clones away from his current fight and ordered him over to him to start rapidly rotating his hands over his master's open palm while the real Shinachiku concentrated on gathering his chakra into his hand. Meanwhile, Sarada kept her mind calm as she could feel her chakra focus into her hand and she could already hear the familiar sound of electric futz that resembled a bird's chirping.

The enemy were getting closer...and closer...and closer. Finally, right before either of them could be sliced in half, the time had come for both of them.

"RASENGAN!"

"CHIDORI!"

The two attacks each struck their foes...but there was an unexpected twist. To catch their approaching foes off guard, the two kids spun around to swap places at the last possible second. Shinachiku, who had been facing the ninja coming from the north, sudden trust his Rasengan at the one coming from the south instead. Likewise, Sarada had been facing the foe coming from the south, and then she thrust her Chidori into the chest of the one from the north.

The ruse worked as neither ninja had the reaction time their needed to counter the sudden swapping of opponents. The ninja who took the Chidori to the chest fell to ground in a limp huff, while the one with the Rasengan to the chest was blasted several feet away into a concrete wall, a nasty, smoldering scar on his chest.

"Nice work," the girl said.

"T-Thanks," the boy said back, with a bit of discomfort at the presence of the corpse that now lay at the girl's feet. Even more alarming to him was that the enemy he himself had just defended himself against was not getting up. It was clear to him that the ninja was either unconscious, dead or dying.

"The first one always hurts the worst."

The boy was snapped out of his trance by the sound of her voice. "W-Wha?"

"Its what my dad told me. Your first kill always hurts the worst."

"And does it ever get any better?"

The girl looked down regret. "I never said that, I only said that the first one hurts the worst."

There was a tense three seconds as the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl stared at one another. But thankfully that tension was broken when they heard Konohamaru yelling at them to the get focused again.

"Hey kids, not to ruin your existential moment but we've still got a lot more fighting to do before this is over."

Both of them came back to attention and shouted "Hai sensei!"

* * *

The hospital room was swarming with Taka ninja by now. Tsunade, Shizune and Guy were holding them off, but the numbers seems to be getting the better of them after a while. Tsunade's obligation to hold back her maximum strength was becoming a nuisance and Shizune was running out of senbon to use. Even Guy, as awesome as he was, was starting to become overwhelmed in his situation.

During the course of the fighting, Tsunade had instinctively tossed one of her opponents across the room, but said opponent ended up colliding with a locker against the far wall.

"AAAHH!" a scream came from inside the locker.

'Damn it!' Tsunade cursed within her own head.

Hanami couldn't help it, the sudden slam of someone's body against her and Burandon's hiding spot spooked her into breaking her cover.

"Over there!" one of the Taka ninja shouted as they pointed to the locker.

The ninja got their weapons out as they ripped the locker door open, but even they were surprised when out of the enclosed space came a young and very fast-moving green blur.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Burandon jumped out of the locker and immediately started attacking the enemy with a flurry of punches and kicks that would make his father proud, it was certainly making Guy proud as he got what quick glimpses he could of the boy's fighting as he was preoccupied with defending himself.

"LEAF GREAT WHIRLWIND!"

Burndon got an enemy in his sights and kicked him into the air , following him with more kicks in the air until he had him up at the room's ceiling, before he dropped kicked back to the ground with a powerful heel drop, followed by a foot stomp that knocked the enemy out.

Another Taka ninja started chucking a flurry of kunai at the boy, but he was quick to take notice and whipped out a piece of paper with a seal on it and released it's contents at his opponent.

"UNSEALING TECHNIQUE: SHURIKEN!"

Out of the piece of paper came a barrage of about fifty throwing stars, many of which the Taka ninja was able to dodge, save for a few that got him in the arm and the leg, the momentary wincing in pain giving the boy the opening he needed to land a powerful right hook straight to the traitor's face.

Getting into a defensive pose, Burandon Lee challenged his foes with a stern and serious glare. "Agents of Taka I defy you! I am Burandon Lee, son of Rock Lee and Tenten, greatest masters of taijutsu and bukijutsu in the Hidden Leaf Village! Shinachiku Uzumaki is my friend and his sister Hanami is under _my_ protection! So long as I breath you will not harm a hair on her head!"

The double agents did not care to hear the boy's long-winded speeches, so they merely called what they _thought_ to be his bluff.

One of the ninja asked in arrogance, "What makes you think you can do that boy?"

Burandon calmly started unwrapping the bandages on his forearms and taking off the leg warmers wrapped around his ankles, which in reality were a pair of excessively heavy weights. "Because none of you have bore witness yet to my true potential."

Taking the ankle weights in his hands, he allowed them to fall to the ground with a gigantic thud, indicating their weight to be well in excess of at least a couple hundred kilograms. It was his father's old training method that he had passed onto his son. With the excess weight now removed, the boy's speed was now at least twice what it was before if not more.

Burandon demonstrated this when he laid a powerful and brutal uppercut to the ninja that had just badmouthed him, followed by a quick elbow too the gut with equal force. Both attacks came so fast that his opponent hardly had time to see the attacks, let alone time to react to them.

The boy kept going around the room laying siege to all of the enemies in the room. One after another they were either falling victim to or meeting their match against Burandon's skill.

Hanami watched on from her hiding place as her friend went to work defending her against the bad ninja. 'Wow, he's good.'

Tsunade let out a loud whistle in approval. "That kids' got some mad skills all right."

Shizune smiled, "Its no surprise given who raised and trained him."

Guy was all smiles as he watched his latest pupil go to work. 'Great work Burandon! The Springtime of Youth is strong in you!'

With one well-timed kick, Burandon wisely decided to give himself and his friends a more level advantage in this battle.

"LEAF WHIRLWIND!"

The roundhouse kick was done with enough force to the cause the enemy to shatter the wall of the hospital, creating an opening to the outside.

"Lady Tsunade! Shizune! Guy-sensei! Hanami! Let us take this battle outdoors so we may have a greater advantage and so we may no longer be restricted from using our fullest abilities!"

Shizune took in what the boy had just suggested and looked over to her old master. "You know, he does have a point. How come you never thought of doing that m'lady?"

The Slug Sannin sweat dropped and her eyebrow twitched. "Just shut up."

The heroes flied out of the hospital room one-by one, Burandon keeping a close watch over Hanami the whole time. The even ninja pursued the outside, but just as the boy said, Tsunade was no longer in a position where she needed to hold back anymore.

Focusing her chakra into her fist, she punched the ground with enough force to cause a huge fissure in the ground, tripping a number of ninja under her and burying their feet and in some cases their waists under rubble.

Shizune was quick to follow up be releasing her poison mist from her mouth, the noxious gas instantly poisoning some of the enemy and leaving them unable to fight.

As Tsunade and Shizune continued fighting, Burandon _really_ got to go to town as he started focusing his body, a powerful and dangerous aura surrounding his essence as he suddenly got a massive power boost.

"FIRST GATE: GATE OF OPENING! OPEN!"

Burandon started leaping higher and higher into the air and started using a hundred percent of his strength as he fought, overwhelming most of his opposition. He zeroed in a three Taka ninja in particular and started taking out his unraveled bandaged and wrapping him up in them as he spun through the air.

"FRONT LOTUS!"

Burandon kicked his enemy into the air and followed his every movement with the Shadow of the Dancing Leaf. Once he was behind his opponent, Burandon restrained him and pile drove them into the ground head first as he rotated at an utterly furious speed.

It was an impressive display of power, but that did not stop the enemy's assault. Burandon would not be perturbed however. He focused again and increased his strength once again.

"SECOND GATE: GATE OF HEALING! OPEN!"

Burandon started moving faster and faster, taking out more and more ninja as he whipped out two large scrolls and unsealed them to unleash a hailstorm of weaponry.

"TWIN RISING DRAGONS!"

The weapons (kunai, shuriken, spears, sickles, etc.) impaled or severely wounded most of the opposition. It looked like, finally, the battle was coming to an end.

Burandon turned his head to Hanami, smiling and giving his father's signature thumbs up as he heaved and panted from exhaustion.

The momentary exuberance was cut short as they heard what sounded like a sarcastic clapping of hands together. Turing back to the giant hole in the wall of the hospital, then could see a large, burly-looking man giving then the round of applause. He had a cloak on and a hood over his head. Despite the disguise, all of the heroes (except maybe Hanami) still knew who it was.

"Well done lad," the hooded stranger said coldly. "Your father and mother would be proud of your performance today."

Tsunade felt the blood drain from her face as she was able to recognize that voice anywhere. It was her old friend, her teammate, her partner...and while she may never have admitted it publicly, he had also, on occasion, when she'd needed it most, been her lover. "Jiraiya..."

The stranger removed his hood, revealing the face of the old Toad Sage himself. His long, spiky white hair flowed down his back as he stood before them, his eyes quickly flashing blue as a side effect of his possession due to the Mind Gem.

"Hello again Tsunade. I haven't seen you since I captured you for Lord Uragi. You can imagine my disappointment when I found out you'd escaped."

"Jiraiya," Tsunade said with trepidation, "_Please_ listen to me. This isn't you. Taka has used a chakra gem to take control of your mind. But you're strong. You can break free of this."

There seemed to be a momentary break in the old man's focus, like he was starting to realize something that had happened to him some time ago. It was almost as if he were waking up from a dream...But then it went away just as quickly.

"I...I don't...I don't know what you're talking about. I have always served Taka."

"No you haven't! You're a ninja of Konoha! You're the Toad Sage! One of the Legendary Sannin like me. You're a student of the Third Hokage! You're the teacher of the Fourth Hokage! You're a ninja! An author! A sex-obsessed pervert! You're my **friend!**" Tsunade then stopped her rant as she found the courage to admit to something she should have admitted to a long time ago. "I...I love you Jiraiya."

The blue light disappeared from the old man's eyes. His solemn face softened. His heart was aflutter. It was as though he was a brand new person, or rather, the person he used to be...

...And then his eye's narrowed again as he ran at full ninja speed and delivered his hardest possible punch directly at to Tsunade's stomach...Or at least he would have had Burandon not blocked it with his leg.

"What are you doing boy?"

"Stopping you from hurting Lady Tsunade. Do not antagonize me Pervy Sa—I-I mean Master Jiraiya."

The old master quickly knocked the boy out of the way. But the new Green Beast of Konoha was quick to recover as he stared his opponent down.

"Alright! No more games." The boy closed his eyes. 'Forgive me father, I know you have always warned me, but to oppose a Sannin I fear I have to risk it.'

Focusing himself once more, Burandon opened yet another of his eight gates. This time, however, opening the gate had a truly startling effect. The boy's body temperature increased dramatically as the boy's sweat evaporated at a rapid pace, forming what looked like an intense green aura emanating from his body. Hot wind picked up dramatically, the boy's skin turned red, and Burandon Lee was suddenly far more powerful young man.

"THIRD GATE: GATE OF LIFE! OPEN!"

Burandon attacked the old man with one of the absolute most powerful kicks he could pull off...but the old man caught the boy's leg and pushed him back, though even he would have to admit that with the boy's third gate unlocked it was not an _entirely_ effortless counter.

Burandon was pushed back a few feet, but he got control of himself and skidded to a halt. He actually growled as the fire in his eyes grew even hotter.

"Alright! That's it!" "REVERSE LOTUS!"

He threw a kick at the brainwashed Sannin, knocking him into the air, hitting the old man at inhuman speeds. He aimed for a powerful, left-handed strike and kick at once at the old man...Unfortunately, Jiraiya was no fool. He knew full well that if he allowed himself to be hit with that powerful a technique then the impact could be fatal, even for someone like him. No, he was fully prepared for this finishing blow and instead he caught both of the boy's limbs at once and flung him back to the ground. He landed with a loud slam and a small crated formed in the ground.

Huffing and puffing, the now literally red-faced Genin huffed and puffed as the Flames of Youth heated to a furnace.

Guy could already tell where the boy was going, but memories of Lee's battle with Gaara decades ago flashed through the old man's mind. The Springtime of Youth may be one of the most important things in the world to the retired taijutsu master, but if there was one thing he did not want to see it was the faces of both of his star pupils when he told them that their son got himself in the hospital while on his watch.

"Burandon! STOP!"

The boy calmed down as he turned to his current master. "G-Guy-sensei?"

"Burandon, listen to me, you're a terrific boy and you're going to be a great shinobi one day. But at your age, opening the Gate of Pain is _extremely_ dangerous. Your father opened his fourth gate when he was young age and he tore his muscle tissue in the process."

"But sensei—?"

"Listen to Guy, Burandon!" Tsunade added her own voice to the conversation. "I healed your father's injuries myself and it took a dangerous operation that only I could perform! I don't want to risk that fate for you!"

Burandon calmed down. He knew all about that injury of course, and yes, even if his father had long since made a full recovery and mastered at least six of the gates, maybe more, he still had a long way to go and a lot more training he needed to do before he could reach that level.

"H-Hai m'lady."

Tsunade stared down the white-haired sage with pity before she steeled her determination and started giving orders. "Shizune, you get Gai out of here and keep that antidote safe. Burandon, you stay with Hanami. I'll deal with this."

The middle-aged woman expressed her initial concern. "But m'lady—?"

_"I SAID LEAVE!"_

The roar of the blonde woman's voice was all it took to snap Shizune back into her familiar panicky personality. Seriously, she had traveled and studied under this woman long enough now to know that you do _not_ mess with her when she was angry!

"Hanami! Burandon! We're leaving!"

The boy, starting to get over his feeling of exhaustion, nodded foe the girl to follow her as Shizune grabbed both the handles of Guy's wheelchair. What they did not see was the presence of two knowing Anbu Black Ops up in the trees. Nodding to one another, they dashed out of the trees and began following at a clear distance.

This left the two Sannin alone, staring each other down.

"Jiraiya, _please_, lets not do this."

The old man's only response was to stare at his old love with distress and say to her "Hail Taka."

Tsunade allowed a single tear to fall down her face as she focused her chakra into her fist and charged at full speed at her second love...

* * *

Mirai was in the midst of a brutal battle with her former teammate Hanzo. Sure she could use her Flower Pedal Escape to jump from location to location, even if that was becoming increasingly hard with all of the other fighting going on inside the standby station, but Hanzo had been training with her for years so he knew most, if not all of her moves.

As it was, Hanzo was constantly staying out of range of Mirai's trench knives. The boy himself deflected and blocked them with his kunai, although the knives did leave a small scratch on his right cheek that drew a line of blood.

Deciding enough was enough, Hanzo got out one of his signature weapons, one that was particularly difficult to fully master, even an expert like Tenten would attest to that. He got out a kunai tied to a long rope; grabbing the rope he twirled the kunai in the air before a carefully timed tugged trust the weapon outward in Mirai's direction.

The kunai would have impaled Mirai had she not spent so long training with him in the past. As such, she was able to catch the kunai and wrap the rope around her arm. Tugging the rope, she dragged the weapon along with him towards her as she got one of her trench knives ready for a final blow.

Once the boy was in range, she threw the most powerful left hook she could to his jaw before slamming him into the ground. Getting her knife ready, she focused her chakra into it and the blade grew larger.

"FLYING SWALLOW!"

By pouring her chakra into the blade, its cutting power increased dramatically, leaving a deep, lethal gash right into the boy's chest. And with that Hanzo, secret agent of Taka, was no more.

Catching her breath from her battle, Mirai dropped her weapons and fell to her knees beside her fallen former comrade. Evan as the chaos continued around her she could do nothing to fight it. The boy she once cherished as her teammate and friend was a liar and a traitor this whole time, and now he was dead.

And so, lost in her own private mourning, Mirai Sarutobi cried...

* * *

By now most of the classrooms in the Academy had been evacuated now. Iruka, Anko and their Anbu back ups unit had enclosed a perimeter around the children as they marched towards their destination. After the last few rooms were evacuated, one of the students finally saw fit to ask the obvious question.

"Iruka-sensei, where are they taking us?"

The middle aged ninja answered: "We are going to a safe house. Rule Two of the village defense protocols during an enemy attack state that if the enemy cannot be immediately defeated, evacuation of the villagers becomes top priority."

"But where are they leading us?"

"There's a shelter we can take in the Hokage Rock," Anko answered. "You kids will be safe there."

Using a series of clever distractions and genjutsu, Iruka, Anko and the Anbu loyalists managed to get the kids safely out of the school and the village, making their way towards the monument. There was a staircase located on the side of the Hokage's heads which led to the secret archive library. That was also their way into a secret bunker inside the mountain that would serve as the kid's shelter...

...Or rather it _would_ have been, had they not already seen a heavily armed squad of Anbu Black Ops breaking into the compound at that very moment. Anko took notice that a number of them were carrying explosive tags as part of their gear.

"Shit!" the kunoichi cursed. "They must be here to destroy the archives. If all that information were to disappear—"

"You're right, we cannot allow that to happen." Iruka started giving orders out to the Anbu escort. "I need at least five of you to stay with me and protect the students, the rest of you go with Anko and protect the archives."

The Anbu took their new orders without question, five remaining with Iruka and the rest marching up the stairs with Anko in the lead.

"Sensei?" a young girl from the Academy said, "What's going to happen to us?"

"Nothing dear," Iruka said with only the slightest trace of nervousness. "Mark my words that we are all going to get through this together."

Both teams ascended the stairs as they split off into two separate staircases going in two directions. Anko's team went one way towards the archives, while Iruka's went the other way towards the hidden bunker within the mountain.

As Iruka's team got to the secret entrance, he instructed the children to remain quiet and he had them file in two at a time, the Anbu standing watch over them and staying alert for their safety.

Meanwhile, Anko's team had reached the entrance to the archive library. The traitorous ninja had finished an attempted breaking down of the door with a battering ram, a plan with did not work because the door was too well built.

"Its no good!" the squad's captain said aloud. "Place a paper bomb on the door and blow it open."

"Will that work sir?" one of the ninja under his command questioned.

"It worked for us on the other library didn't it?!" the captain snapped back.

As the traitors were busy placing the explosive on the door, Anko raised her voice to make her presence known. "Boys, I really wouldn't do that it I were you?"

The Taka spies turned in the direction of the voice and their captain sneered after he realized who it was. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Orochimaru's bitch!"

Anko didn't say anything in response, but even with her limited reaction the captain could tell that she was _not_ amused.

"You have a choice to make Mitarashi," the captain continued. "Either help us and pledge yourself to Taka's new world order, or face our judgment."

The snake seductress cocked an eyebrow. "You're joking right?"

"Why not? You already are the student of the greatest traitor in the village's history."

Anko laughed, "Yeah, well, I'd say your master Uragi is seriously challenging that title." Anko decided to drop all jokes as she got out her weapon, as did her men. "I'm only going to say this once, leave this place or deal with us!"

As the Taka ninja got out their own weapons, their captain laughed. "Amusing, but in case you haven't noticed, you're clearly outnumbered."

"You sure about that?"

Both sides turned their heads to the source of the voice. Another squadron of ninja, led by Moegi and Udon, had leaped up the staircase to join up at Anko's side.

"What the heck are you all doing here?" Anko questioned.

Udon answered for the group: "We encountered this same platoon at the bombing of the library. They escaped, but after we finished rescuing the civilians and shinobi trapped inside we concluded they would come here next."

"We're here as your backup if you'd like any Anko-sensei?" Moegi offered.

The snake mistress smirked as she faced her opponents and licked her lips. "Well, this just might be fun after all..."

* * *

"Yamato-sensei," Shikadai shouted as he kept fighting, "this is a getting out of hand. We need to find some reinforcements before all this fighting moves above the mountain and into the city."

"You're right," the wood master agreed, " but we don't have any reinforcements coming at the moment."

"How about us?"

Yamato and his team turned their heads in the direction of the voices to discover that Kakashi and Konohamaru's battalion had arrived to give them backup.

Fighting back to back, the two former teammates hacked and slashed at the enemy as they bantered.

"So how did it go at the Academy?" Yamato questioned as he ensnared and then tossed enemy ninja with his wood abilities. "Was Uragi captured?"

"Not yet," Kakashi answered as he thrust his Lightning Cutter into an attacking enemy. "You've heard Shinachiku's speech I presume? Well Gaara's under the enemy's control right now and he and Uragi have taken the kages hostage."

Shikadai overheard the veteran's conversation as he used his shadow abilities to force Taka agents into attacking each other. "Let me guess: they used that serum of there's to negate the kage's chakra too."

"Afraid so," Sarada answered for her current teachers.

Chōchō, who was busy smashing enemies with her enlarged fists and rolling over others with her ball form, nevertheless took the time chastise the blonde boy that had joined their ranks. "Say, great speech and all Shina, but I can't say you made the job any easier for us!"

"Gomen" was all Shinachiku could say and he thrust a quick Rasengan into an Anbu that came at him with a katana blade.

Inojin had created two more beasts with his drawing pad, one a giant bird that captured enemies in it's talons to toss them into another part of the village with a hard thump, the other a giant lizard monster that he projected into one of the enemy ninja's mind for a severe mental attack.

"Has there been any luck in locating our parents?" Inojin questioned.

"Not yet," Sarada answered as she kept fighting. "Kurenai-sensei hasn't sent us any update from the Correctional Facility yet."

"Let's just prey that they manage to get out of there in one piece," Konohamaru said as he thrust his own Rasengan into one of his opponents.

"What do you mean?" Chōchō asked.

"I mean that the Strict Correctional Facility is a shiro built on an island in the center of a volcanic area outside the village and the only bridge leading there could be blocked off to them now that Taka's been exposed."

The Akimichi girl's face faulted and a large sweat drop appeared on her head. "...Oh yeah, forgot about all that..."

"Konohamaru-sensei's right," Shiachiku agreed, "they're going to need an escape route out of there in case things go bad."

Sunako, who had been using her sand to fight off the enemy in silence this whole time, interjected in her usual monotone voice. "I will go, I have already freed prisoners from that facility before—"

"No!" Kakashi dismissed. "We need your skills here in the heat of the fight. Inojin, can you make an ink bird large enough to the fly Kurenai and her team out of there?"

"Hai Lord Sixth."

Inojin quickly scribbled a crude bird of enormous size, enough to the carry at least four people on it's back as it flies. As soon as it was brought to life he sent his creation flying away from the village.

Another rogue ninja tried to attack at Yamato while preparing a fire jutsu. But Yamato caught his opponent off guard by using his wood release to wrap the enemy in his wooden binds and fling him straight over to Kakashi, who was well prepared for the surprise as he thrust his Lightning Blade straight into the enemy's chest, goring and electrifying him to death.

"Lord Sixth," Inojin informed the retired kage as he continued fighting and the old man allowed his jutsu to dispel and the Taka ninja's corpse to fall to the ground. "My ink bird is on it's way to the correctional facility as I speak."

Kakashi sighed, "Let's just hope that they don't need it for anything."

* * *

Inside the bowels of the Strict Correctional Facility, Kureani, Bagu and the twins were still fighting off the enemy in the darkness of the prison as they made their way deeper and deeper into the depths of the dungeon.

As if all of that wasn't bad enough, the Taka double agents had seized control from the warden and released the locks to all the cells, allowing all of the inmates to get free. This meant that every sick, murderous, psychotic criminal and fallen shinobi in the facility was on the loose along with dozens of Taka ninja dressed as Konoha's very own.

Ōkami and Tsuki performed still more tag team maneuvers with their loyal ninken as Bagu created protective domes and poisoned as many as he could with his insects.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Ōkami complained, as usual. "We must have fought our way through this whole damn prison by now! Where are our parents?!"

"Maybe they're being kept in a special containment unit for elite criminals?" Tsuki suggested.

"No, we already searched every such cell block this facility has," Bagu stated. "I'm starting to think that this is not where our parents are being kept after all."

Kurenai was listening in, even as she and her team were still busy fighting for their lives. It was a nuisance, but they'd been here long enough to attest that they seriously must have searched the entire prison by now and they weren't finding anything. Maybe Naruto and the others were never held here in the first place? But whatever the case there was a battle for the village's soul going on out there and if this place was not where the Hokage and his friends were being kept, then they needed to get out of here and back to the village to properly do their ninja duty.

"Alright!" she called out to her team. "Listen! This mission is a dud! We're getting out of here right now! Everyone head back towards the exit!"

Ōkami and Tsuki used their taijutsu style and their combination attacks with Akamoro and Akamiki to fight their way back to the Bascule bridge that was their only way off of the island. The doorway was sealed shut and there were far too many guards and psychopathic inmates blocking their way for them to escape.

"What now?" Tsuki asked aloud in worry.

In that moment, one of Bagu's insects flew into the boy's ear. He seemed to be listening to something like he was in some sort of trance before he spoke. "Head back to the front of the island, the exercise grounds."

"What?!" Ōkami asked in alarm. "Why the hell should we do that?! We're trying _out_ of this place, not further in!"

"Trust me."

Kurenai studied the boy's composure, and also rationalized their current predicament. "Do as he says. Head back to the exercise area. Move!"

The island was shaped as a shinobi's kunai and the tip of it, beyond the bridge, the watch house and the tower, was a large open area on the front of the island where the prisoners would periodically be allowed free roaming for "exercise," which in reality meant a place where they were told to dig through the soils as a form of character building.

Running and fighting their way through the prison, the four shinobi made it to the open grounds, the sky and the sun in clear view and the scorching heat of the volcanic lava surrounding the island already causing them all to break into a sweat.

The ninja and inmates were closing in, surrounding them. It looked like this was the end.

"Okay, here we are!" Ōkami stated in complete sarcasm. "Now would you _please_ tell us why the _fuck_ you thought this was a good idea?!"

"Just wait."

Bagu's totally calm demeanor did little to state the Inuzuka-Hyūga boy's nerves. "Wait for what?!"

"Wait."

A few seconds passed as the enemy forces got closer. One particularly creepy inmate got out a knife and licked it with his tongue.

Then Tsuki noticed something. "Look! Up in the sky!"

Her brother looked up to where she was pointing and had to squint his eyes because of the sun, but he could see it too. However, he shrugged his shoulders at what he saw in the sky. "Its a bird."

"Yes," Bagu replied, "but look more closely at it."

They did as the insect-user said and looked more closely as the bird came closer into view. It was no ordinary bird, it was much, much larger and it was in black and white. Honestly, it looked like a child's drawing come to life.

"Inojin?" Kurenai reasoned.

"Correct," Bagu concurred. "One of my insects found a hole in the wall and when it flew outside it saw Inojin's creation coming to our rescue."

"Why didn't you just tell us that before?" Ōkami asked in annoyance.

"I shouldn't have had to. As your teammate you should be willing to trust my judgment without question."

"Why you stuck up son of a—!" Ōkami was just about to punch the bug ninja's lights out, before his sister held his arm back.

"Enough!" Kurenai shouted as the ink bird made a landing at their feet. "We don't have time for this! Now everybody get on board!"

The enemy were rushing them now as they hastily got on the back of the ink bird, which took off just in time to avoid any of the incarcerated lunatics from cutting their throats open.

As the bird ascended into the air, they could see the lava lake surrounding the kunai-shaped island as some Taka ninja resorted to throwing weapons and projectile jutsu at them to prevent their escape. The bird was out of sight quickly, flying Kurenai and the children back in the direction of their besieged village.

They could all see Konoha from the sky and they were shocked at the utter chaos of all of it. Villagers were running for their lives, Leaf ninja were turning on one another, and the buildings of the village under attack, including a bellow of smoke coming from the library. It may not have been the apocalyptic destruction of Pain's attack so many decades ago, but for these kids it was still the most horrific imagery they have ever been forced to witness.

"Dear lord..." Ōkami said in a shocked, barely audible voice. His sister clung to him as she started crying at what she was seeing. Bagu did not show any visible expression, but even beneath his sunglasses his eyes were clearly expressing regret.

Kurenai, once again, needed to be the professional one here. "Kids, I know you've already been through a lot. But our home is in trouble now and as shinobi of Konoha you've all taken an oath to defend it. Now our friends are down there fighting for their lives, so we need to get down there and help them any way we can."

"HAI SENSEI!" the three of them all said in unison.

Turning her head back to the battle below, Kurenai stared at all the fighting and could feel a single tear run down her face. 'Asuma, our little girl is down there somewhere...Mirai, please be safe...'

Regaining a least some of his composure, Ōkami retorted, "Well at least things can't get any worse..."

* * *

Shizune and the others were rushing as far as they could away from the hospital and the duel between the two Sannin. She was pushing Guy's chair as fast as she could move without causing any discomfort for him. Burandon was keeping to pace as he encouraged Hanami to keep up with him.

But they were suddenly stopped in their tracks as two Anbu appeared in front of them. The heroes were quick to get into a battle stance.

Get out of our way!" Shizune demanded.

"You're in no position to bargain missy," one of them said.

The other one didn't bother to say anything as he shot a sort of mechanical grappling hook device out from his sleeve. The grapple grabbed hold of the scroll Shizune was keeping on her person, bringing it back to the two Anbu.

"No!" she cried out is shock as Guy, Burandon and Hanami could only stare on.

Within moments of the scroll coming into range, the second Anbu cast a fire release jutsu, causing the entire scroll, and all of their antidote to Taka's serum sealed within, to burn to a crisp.

The flames reflected in Shizune's eyes as she saw their best hope, the result of all the days and weeks of hard, agonizing work that she and Tsunade had went through be destroyed right in front of their eyes.

"That...That was...**YOU!**" She instantly went into a furious rage as she lunged at both of them with all her strength. "You ruined **everything!**"

The Anbu were skilled enough to block the medical ninja's blows and knock her to the ground. One of them then made a quick dash over the Hanami and got her locked inside a neck hold with a kunai pressed to her neck.

"Any of you moves, **she** dies!"

There was a standoff now, one they did not know how to get out of without risk of loosing the little girl's life...

* * *

Back on the island, as the ninja actively did what they could to try to get the prisoners back under control and back into confinement, one of the Taka ninja got out his cellular phone and dialed a number. "My lord, forgive me, but four Leaf ninja just infiltrated and escaped from the correctional facility."

"Did they steal anything?" a voice answered on the other end.

"No sir. I suspect they came here looking for the Seventh and his allies..."

* * *

"...I see. Well then it's a good thing that they chose to look in entirely the wrong location then. Get the island back under control and then regroup in the village. I want the city under our control by nightfall."

"Hai sir! Over and out! Hail Taka!"

Uragi Rimonō hung up his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. He was standing in the middle of the forest with two masked Anbu, two powerful Suna representatives and two reformed criminals at his side. He had chosen this location for a very particular reason, and that reason had to do with a rather large ensemble of guests that were at his feet. His Anbu bodyguards were covered with masks to hide their identities, but they were a formidable pair to say the least. Also standing beside him were the Kazekage himself and his brother, and the Swordsmen of the Mist Suigetsu Hōzuki and the giant with the monster's rage Jūgo, all of them still under his control.

His prisoners were like a role call of some of the biggest threats to his and Taka's goals, and nearly all of them were right here at his mercy: Randamu, Omoi, Akatsuchi, the Mizukage's bodyguard, Rock Lee, Tenten, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka and his ninken Akamaru, Hinata Hyūga, Chōji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Karui, Temari, and Sai. All of them were there with their hands and feet bound and their chakra still rendered inert.

And then there were the guests of honor: Chōjūrō, Darui, Kurotsuchi, Karin, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and the worst of them all, Naruto Uzumaki.

Uragi looked without expression at his prisoners before speaking. "So here we are. You cannot imagine how long I have dreamed of this moment. After all of the lies, all of the contradictions, all the hypocrisy of you claiming to be the Child of Prophecy to end this world's cycle of hatred, now you will finally pay the price for your failure."

He spoke to the three kage as one unit. "You three, the Kages, the one's who control the world and are most to blame for the cesspool of death and misery that it really is. As long as your system exists, the cycle of hatred, violence and death can never end."

He spoke to Sasuke next. "You, the man who once was utterly consumed by that cycle of hatred but almost found his redemption. You almost could have wiped out the Kage system yourself, the cycle of hatred along with it. You could have started the world over, but instead you threw those dreams away because you allowed **this** one to corrupt you! **We** instead had to rise up in your place to fulfill your vision because you were too **weak** to see it through!"

Finally, he spoke directly to Naruto. "And **you.** You're everything that is wrong with the world today. You've coasted your way through life, climbed that ladder of violence and death, all the while claiming to be some great hero, and now that you have what you want you indulge yourself in your own success at the total expense of everyone else! You have completely failed as a Child of Prophecy. **You**, Naruto Uzumaki, are a fraud! And now, the time has come for you and all those who stand with you to suffer for your sins!"

He stole a second glance at Sakura before he brushed her off in disgust. "...You, **and** this harlot wife of yours."

Everyone else may have just sat there and listened in furious contempt, but not Sakura. "You can say whatever you want about me, or my friends, or my husband. But no matter what you may think of him, at lest he's still human. The only real monster here is **you** Uragi, and you're just too damn stupid to see it! **You're** the weak one because you don't know love, or friendship...and for that I **pity** you!"

_SLAP!_

The entire group, Sasuke included, were shocked that the middle aged traitor dared to let his anger out and hit her like that. Her husband however, he was feeling some very different emotions.

Naruto had been forced to sit there and take a lot of crap from Uragi's mouth, but that was the final straw! _Nobody_ did that to his Sakura! _No one!_

**"RRRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"**

Even if he could not summon Kurama's chakra, the blonde's outburst, restrained only by his metal bindings, was akin to a ravenous beast. He was a mortal man who, at the moment, may not have had the Nine-Tails's power, but he had **all** of his rage. Even some of Naruto's closest friends, Sakura and Sasuke included, were at least somewhat intimidated by him in this state.

One person who was _not_ impressed though was Uragi. He nodded to the mind-controlled Gaara to use his sand to entrap the orange Hokage, which he did.

After some furious struggling, Naruto found just enough willpower to get himself to growl under his breath at his enemy. "She's right you know...You really are a monster."

Sakura recovered from her slap with words of reassurance. "Don't worry Naruto, I'm fine. Besides..." She smirked evilly as she glared at Uragi, "...he hits like a girl."

Uragi sighed as he tried to ignore the blatant insult. He pulled out the blue chakra gem from inside his pocket for all of them to see. "You know, it would be so easy for me to just use this on all of you and draft you into Taka's service. All five of the kages, Uchiha, and all their friends on our side, we might very well be invincible. But I'm not going to do that. Do you know why Naruto?"

More angry silence was his only response.

"Because I **hate** you! **All** of you! Every breath of air you take disgusts me to my core and I want nothing more than to erase every trace of your existence from the face of this earth! You, your wife, Uchiha, your friends who would follow you to the ends of time, even those bastard children of yours!"

Naruto couldn't remember the last time he felt so angry. So utterly furious. It wasn't about what he said about him. No! This bastard had to go and attack his _children! _"You leave my son and daughter out of this!"

"I didn't bring them into this. _He_ did." Uragi pointed directly at Sasuke, who refused to allow the shame he was feeling to become visible on his face so that Uragi would not have the pleasure of seeing it. "The day Uchiha came to your house and took your son on his adventure to find the chakra gem, his fate has been sealed ever since...In speaking of which, where is the gem?"

He directed that question at Sasuke, who's only answer was to say: "Hopefully somewhere neither you nor any of your kind will ever find it again."

Uragi groaned in frustration. He started talking to Naruto again. "You know, I _was_ planning on giving you a public execution as punishment for your crimes, but then your son had to go and use that secret intercom in your desk to expose us to the entire village."

There were a few audible gasps from some of the blonde's friends, save from Sakura and Shikamaru who were among the few who already knew about it.

"Secret intercom?" Hinata questioned.

Naruto sighed, "Another time Hinata."

"Yeah, seriously Hinata! Don't you know that the writer is getting exhausted now just keeping up with all of his own convoluted multiple story lines—?"

"SHUT UP RANDAMU!" Sasuke and Karin shouted as one.

"Okay, okay, jeez! Take a guy's head off for trying to get himself some lines into this chapter..."

"If I may?" Uragi continued. "I was going to kill you publicly to make an example of you, but since your son has taken that option out of my hands I needed to go somewhere more secluded for it. Tell me Naruto...do you recognize where we are?"

The blonde looked to his left and then his right, and when he did his eyes went bloodshot. "No! No you son of a bitch!"

"Ah yes, I was hoping you'd catch on. This part of the forest, this is the very place where your mother and father gave their lives to save yours and seal the Nine-Tails inside of you. You're being held prisoner on the **exact** spot where they died."

Naruto was mortified! Sakura was already crying. His friends were utterly shocked and many of them were fuming with anger. Even Sasuke, a man who had to see his entire clan massacred him before his very eyes, could feel his best friend's tragedy in this horrifically cruel moment.

"Yes Naruto, this is where you family died long ago, and now you and all your friends will too..."

* * *

Whoa! Now THAT'S a morbid cliffhanger to end a chapter on! Uragi plans to kill Naruto and all his friends on the EXACT spot where Minato and Kushina died saving his life! That's freaking sick! That's like if one of Batman's enemies found out his secret identity and plotted to shoot him dead in the same alley, on the exact same spot where the Wayne's died!

Okay, where to begin talking about this chapter? Well for one thing, as per the advice given to me by airnaruto45, I chose to stay away from a bunch of pop culture references this time (I can't say I will permanently since, well, Randamu...). However, after I came up with the escape plan involving Inojin's ink bird, I couldn't resist making the subtle Superman homage. I'm sure you all caught it, so I'll just leave it there.

We got to see Shinachiku and Sarada go into battle together in this chapter. We haven't yet seen the new jutsu they've been working on, but that is coming soon enough. I liked making a clear contrast between how both of them grew up, one inside the village during an era of peace, and the other out on the road where she had to learn to defend herself to survive. As such, I reasoned that Sarada would likely have had to kill someone before, while Shinachiku hasn't until now. They was originally going to have a huge ethical debate about this, but as I wrote it I found that, while it was interesting, it would have raised questions and steered the story down a problematic path I felt it was best to avoid as this narrative takes shape.

We also got to see Burandon kick so serious ass, after he unfortunately got the shaft in the last chapter. Like his peers, I wanted his fighting style to be a fusion of both of his parents, and in this case I think that works really well. As the son of Lee and Tenten, Burandon is both a taijutsu master and a weapons master, a very natural and very formidable combination that is open to be taken in many different directions. I also revealed that, like his dad during the Chūnin exams, Burandon can already open at least four of the Eight Gates. He might be able to go ever further to the fifth gate, but we may never know since, as we all remember, that fight with Gaara did not go so well for Lee and neither Guy nor Tsunade wanted to see him in the same pain that Lee was in after that fight.

Mirai's fight with Hanzo, which ended on a bittersweet note, included an homage to Hanzo's namesake, Mortal Kombat's Scorpion, by having him use the rope dart, a real life weapon that is extremely difficult to master. Thankfully I stopped myself short of giving his Scorpion's catchphrase as well.

It always made sense to me that if Taka were going to come out of the shadows and attack Konoha, then the archive library hidden inside the Hokage Rock would be an obvious target. I wanted it to be the same squad that previously bombed the village library so as to give them a added threat and to tie Moegi and Udon into Iruka and Anko's story.

Chōchō's reaction to being reminded about the conditions of the Strict Correctional Facility were an admitted self-commentary on myself. While remembering the filler episode where the prison was introduced, I'd forgotten anything about it being located in the center of a volcanic area. I don't think it ruins my previous use of the prison in other chapters; Sunako's way of sneaking in still makes sense. This is another example of how when you're writing fiction like this, the wiki to your chosen subject can be an invaluable tool.

Yes, after all that work they did to find the antidote to Taka's serum, already all of their work is destroyed. Does this mean Naruto and the others may never get their chakra back? And how will the others rescue Hanami from her hostage crisis? You'll just have to wait and see to find out!

The last thing I'll say is that I liked calling out the possible plot hole of why Uragi doesn't just use the chakra gem on Naruto and the others. Its because his hatred of Naruto and everything he represents is so deep that his passion overrules strategy in this case. There is also a deliberate irony here in that Uragi is going on about how he wants to be the one that truly ends the cycle of hatred, yet he outright admits his own hatred of Naruto and is called out for all the terrible things he's done. That suddenly casts our villain in the light of a humongous hypocrite that, as Sakura says of him in a similar way that Harry Potter said of Lord Voldemort, make our heroes pity how sorry this character really is.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope the see you all again for the next one. Until next time, see ya!


	43. Chapter 41--Just Call Me Angel

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Okay, let's address the elephant in the room...I'M SORRY! Really! I'm sorry you guys! I know I've apologized before for delays in getting these chapters out, but this has been my longest delay thus far. I have kept you guys waiting well over a month for more of this story and it breaks my heart that I had to do that to all of you. The truth is that late March and all of April has been an extremely tense and busy time for me, both in my job and in my private life due to issues in my family that shall remain anonymous. I did what I had to do to manage it and get through it, and unfortunately that meant having to put this story on the back burner for a while...Also, I admit it, I was having a hard time coming up with some ideas for a while so a time out might have been needed.

I would give you all my word that I will not allow this to happen again...but I feel I've already promised that before and look how well that turned out. Because of that, I do not feel that I, in all good conscience, can promise you guys that there won't be any more delays; this story is a hobby for me after all. But I do promise you that I am not giving up! I can sense that the end of this story is within sight and I fully intend to see it through to the end. So thank you all SO much for all your support and your appreciation, and I hope that the chapter I have for you today makes it all worth the wait!

I will say however that sensitive readers might want to be mindful of the ending, because the closing sequence does get a bit, err...graphic I'll say. Reader discretion is advised.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 41: Just Call Me Angel**

"Yes Naruto, this is where your family died long ago, and now you and all of your friends will too."

Uragi signaled to his two Anbu bodyguards to come forward. Even though they both were wearing masks, their physic's were clearly those of a man and a woman. The female drew her kunai, freshly sharpened, as she stared down the rest of the group. The male did something different...he focused his chakra into his hand as it spun rapidly and compressed into a familiar spherical shape.

Naruto remained expressionless to disguise the heartbreak he was feeling inside. "Hey dad."

The masked shinobi paused only for a moment, as if his mind was becoming distracted by the younger man's words.

"Kill him." Uragi ordered.

The masked man shook his head like he was coming too from a massive headache. The woman seemed to be having similar feelings of nervousness, her kunai dangling loosely on her fingers, poised to fall down from her hand and onto the forest floor.

Uragi pulled a familiar glowing blue gem from his pocket. The two ninja straightened up instantly, the traces of their momentary awakening totally gone now.

"Dad...mom..." Naruto said pleadingly. "Take off those masks."

Uragi was the one to answer for them. "And what do you expect to see if they do?"

Naruto answered firmly, "The faces of my parents."

In utter annoyance, Uragi pocketed the Mind Gem again and went right up to both ninja and ripped their masks off of their faces himself. What was revealed were the same blonde haired man and red haired woman he'd seen that day in the Land of Whirlpools, only now he could clearly make out the faint hint of blue reflected in their eyes.

"Your parents are gone Uzumaki," Uragi said. "They were dead, so we resurrected them. They were weak, so we remolded them, gave them new purpose. _We_ showed them the light! _We_ showed them the glorious purpose of Taka's new order! The people you _think_ you knew, those people died thirty five years ago and they're never coming back!"

Hinata, forced to watch her first love suffer this horrible pain, and herself still heartbroken at the return of her own cousin ensnared in Taka's ranks, narrowed her eyes in contempt. "You're a monster!"

Uragi merely chuckled. "Oh no...you're the ones who work with the monster."

The old man punctuated his statement by walking straight up to the jinchūriki and laying a powerful, rage-fueled right hook straight into his jaw. The punch was enough to knock the bound and chakraless kage to the round, a glob of blood spurting from his mouth.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed in shock.

Everyone else, even Sasuke, were taken aback by the effects of the ruthless punch. Some of them even tried to make some kind of move in spite of their compromised position, trying desperately to shake themselves free of their constraints. Their efforts were met with a warning glare as Gaara released his sand from his gourd and hardened it into a barrage of impaling spikes that were directly pointed at the heads every single one of them.

"Gaara...Kankurō...don't do this," Temari begged to her bothers with traces of tears in her eyes. She received no verbal response from either of them, but she could see some momentary coming too, as if they were waking up from a dream.

"Suigetsu! Jūgo! Wake up!" Sasuke demanded. He seemed to be having a similar effect on his two teammates, the blue light momentarily fading from their eyes.

"Enough of this!" Uragi pulled the blue gem out of his pocket. As soon as it did, he made his demands to his puppets. _"Kill them."_

No more words said, the now unmasked Leaf ninja, Minato Namikaze, maintained spinning orb of chakra that he held within his palm and reared it back behind him...

A single tear falling down his face, Naruto closed his eyes awaiting end to come...

...

**"RASENGAN!"**

...

The jutsu's name was screamed aloud, but the captive blonde never received the finishing blow. Instead, with a powerful burst of wind, the older blonde man was blasted away from the group just before the attack could make contact with the prisoner.

Something, or some_one_, had made a Rasengan of their own to directly counter Minato's.

**"WHAT?!"** Uragi screamed in shock.

No sooner had he yelled that than the Taka leader received a strong left hook to the face, knocking him to the ground. Uragi looked up to see a tall, older man with silver hair and a mask covering the bottom half of his face.

"Greetings once again Lord Uragi," Kakashi said in irony.

Gaara recovered from his surprise to and was mere milliseconds from murdering his hostages, before he felt another wave of sand, one which he could _not_ control, wrap itself around both himself and his brother before hardening into stone, entrapping them.

Suigetsu and Jūgo were then ready to make their own move, when they suddenly found themselves unable to move as well. Looking at their feet, they could see some sort of black mass ensnaring them both, like a shadow had taken direct possession of their body's movement.

Kushina, the only member of Uragi's group still on her feet or able to move, resorted to getting out her kunai and tried to lunge her weapon straight into the Orange Hokage's face with a yell of anger!

**"ROAR! CHIDORI!"**

A sound that resembled the chirping of a flock of birds accompanied a literal handful of electric bolts that surrounded the hand of what sounded like a young girl screaming. Kushina was just barely able to dodge the attack, but the mysterious attacker was quick to counter with a powerful kick right to the stomach, kicking Kushina a couple feet away and forcing her to grasp her chest while on one knee.

None of the prisoners had access to their chakra at the moment, so that meant there was only one possible explanation to who was doing this.

_"Shiniachiku?!"_ Naruto Sakura reacted in shock.

_"Sarada?!"_ Sasuke and Karin reacted in shock.

_"Shikadai?! Sunako?!"_ Temari alone reacted in shock. Shikamaru, on the other hand settled slightly raising his eyebrows but didn't appear to be terribly surprised beyond that.

"Hey mom, hey dad," Shinachiku said with a innocent smile and a wave of his hand. "Uncle Sasuke, Aunt Karin, Aunt Ino, Aunt Hinata, everybody!"

"Hope you don't mind us dropping in unannounced," Sarada quipped.

"You kids shouldn't have come here!" Sasuke said sternly.

Sarada rolled her eyes. "Good to see you too dad."

"Yeah, and we're here too, you know."

The prisoners turned their heads to see Konohamaru standing nearby with Inojin and Chōchō standing next to him. The kids waved to their parents, the girl smiling happily.

_"Chōchō?!"_ Chōji and Kurai reacted.

_"Inojin!?"_ Ino reacted, Sai merely widening his eyes slightly in surprise.

Kakashi reached down to Uragi's waist and held him off as he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He threw the keys to Konohamaru, who in turn threw them to Sarada, who in turn threw them the Shinachiku.

"Hang on guys," the boy said, "I'll get you out of here."

"Shina!" Chōchō exclaimed.

Minato had quickly gotten up and, with his legendary speed, almost jammed a kunai straight into the boy's gut...had Chōchō not gotten in a _very_ luckily timed pounding with her expanded fist.

Even though Gaara, Kankurō, Suigetsu and Jūgo were still being restrained by Sunako and Shikadai, that still left Kushina open to get back up and make a move to stop them. That is, until Inojin quickly scribbled a monster on his sketchbook and used his chakra to project the creature straight into the resurrected, brainwashed woman's mind.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Kushina fell back to her knee grabbing the sides of the her head in pain.

One cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for some of the prisoners, particularly Naruto, to have to watch the poor woman suffering like this. Even Inojin himself felt bad for having to make the quick action, but if he hadn't then somebody here would not be alive right now.

"Hurry! We've got to get them out of here!" Chōchō exclaimed.

Wasting not a second of time, Shinachiku started with his own parents and one by one went around unlocking the restraints on all of the prisoners (which took a over a minute considering how freaking many there were). By the time he was done, all of the adults were freed and it was time to make a desperate escape.

"Kids!" Sakura shouted, "I don't know what your plan is, but we've got to move now!"

Kakashi flung Uragi into a tree as Shikadai and Sunako used their jutsu's to toss Gaara, Kankurō, Suigetsu and Jūgo away from their location.

"AFTER THEM!" Uragi demanded.

The sand and shadows had dissipated by now, leaving the mind controlled slaves free to pursue the escaped hostages and the children. They searched the forest top to bottom, but they could find no sign of their targets anywhere...

...What they did not realize was that Sunako had used her sand drill to dig beneath the ground and forge a tunnel for them all to hide underground.

"Nice thinking with the tunnel Sunako," Shikadai said.

"Thank you cousin," the auburn-haired girl replied simply.

Sasuke, meanwhile, was going berserk and berating his daughter for her actions. "Sarada, this was an _insanely_ risky move coming back here for us! Do you have any idea what could have happened to all of you?!"

"But dad, if we hadn't come here then all of you would have been killed."

"Better that than any of you getting in danger! Now thanks to you the chakra gem's back in to village where any of them could potentially capture us and claim it and then the whole world could—!"

_WHAM!_

Sasuke was on the floor instantly. Sarada had put all of the strength she had into one strong right hook that landed right in his jaw!

"SARADA!" Karin yelled in objection. "How dare you—?!"

The girl cut her mother off by holding her hand up as her eyes never left her father, who was now being forced to look up and her for a change.

"Now you shut up and listen to me dad! You may not be happy that we came back here to rescue you but we **did!** You may not be happy that we disobeyed your orders to stay out of this but we **did!** And you may not be able to come to terms with the fact that a bunch of kids just saved your life but guess what you ungrateful jerk! **We did!** All my life you've dragged me with you on all your crazy adventures to make me stronger. And now that I finally get to use what you've taught me to save your life you chew me out? **BULLSHIT!** Whether you, or anybody else in this tunnel likes it or not, we are just as much a part of all this as you are. So the way I see it dad, you can ether thank us for saving all of your asses and letting the village know the truth that you weren't involved in Taka's big world domination plan, or you can stay down here in this dark, dank tunnel and rot! So what's it gonna be dad?!"

The entire company fell silent at the volume of the girl's voice. How could the little girl they thought they knew so well just blow up at her own father like that? Okay, sure, they'd all been preteens and had disagreements with their parents before, but they'd never punched any of them in the face! Even Karin could do nothing but stare is shock at her own daughter's outburst.

Inojin, who happened to be standing next to Shinachiku at the moment, leaned in to his utterly stunned, bug eyed friend and told him in a frank tone, "You'd better remember never to piss her off." Shinachiku could only nodded his head stupidly.

Naruto and Sakura, while initially shocked at what Sarada had just done, were able to recover from their shock as they went over the help their friend up.

"Kids," Naruto said, "we're all grateful for what you did for us, we really are. But you all need to realize that by coming after us you all put your lives in serious danger." Naruto paused in reflection before letting out a deep sigh. "...But on the other hand, you're all shinobi, and a shinobi's life is supposed to be full of danger." Naruto walked up to his son, smiled and him and put his bandaged hand on his shoulder. "Thank you son."

The young blonde smiled. "You're welcome dad."

No sooner had the boy said that then his father found himself rudely pushed out of the way by a certain pink-haired woman in a red dress. The boy's mother had embraced her son in a tight hug, squeezing his head into her chest as she let out tears of happiness.

"Oh Shina, sweetheart! I so happy you're not hurt!"

"I-I'm fine mom. Really! Y-You can let go now."

After planting a kiss on the boy's cheek (which the twelve year old could not help but feel at least a little bit embarrassed by, especially when he heard Sarada giggle at the scene), Sakura let go of her son and stood back up. The woman didn't feel too guilty about letting her emotions get the better of her because she suddenly noticed Ino and Sai were giving an affectionate hug and talking to Inojin, as were Shikamaru and Temari to Shikadai and Chōji and Kurai to Chōchō.

"Okay, okay," Kiba interrupted rudely. "Now that we're all here, could somebody tell us what the heck the plan is now?! I feel like there's **a lot** we need to get caught up on here."

"Yes," Shino agreed with his old teammate, "there is a lot we need to know. We do know that Shinachiku used some sort of top secret intercom in the Hokage's office to expose Taka to the entire village—"

"Yes!" Naruto interrupted while folding his arms and glaring at his son. "And even though you did do the right thing you and I are still going to have to have a talk about that young man."

The boy hung his head, "Hai..."

"As I was saying," Shino began again, "we know that much and that we've apparently started a civil war within our own village. We also know now that not only have Naruto's parents, Master Jiraiya and Neji all been resurrected and brainwashed, but now Temari's brothers and Sasuke and Karin's teammates have been brainwashed as well. Did we miss anything?"

"Well," Konohamaru spoke up, "we can tell you that the other three kages have all been injected with Taka's serum now and lost all their chakra before getting taken prisoner."

_"WHAT!"_ Naruto and his friends shouted in shock.

"Yeah," Yamato added next. "And apparently Taka has at least three of the chakra gems in their possession now, one that can control people's minds, the one from the Sand Village that can teleport people, and now a third one that can bring the dead back to life."

Doom fell upon the Konoha 11 and their allies while Sasuke, feeling a sense of guilt washing over him, put his head in his hands.

"Well if all that's true," Shikamaru surmised, "then that certainly answers a lot of questions."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "That would mean that Naruto's parents, Neji, Jiraiya, they've all been brought back by a chakra gem."

"So...that means they're _not_ zombies, right?" Randamu questioned.

"No, they're not."

The missing-nin with the mouth snapped his fingers in irritation. "Aw man! Zombies are awesome!" He then noticed everyone was glaring at him in total irritation. "Sorry."

"Hey!" Tenten piped in, "I think we're all overlooking the most important things here: Where are the rest of our kids?"

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened in horror, as did many of the other parent's down in the tunnel.

"Shinachiku Uzumaki!" Sakura yelled in an unintentionally high voice. "What are you doing rescuing us when you were supposed to be watching over your sister?!"

The blonde waved his hands in the air to try to calm his infamously short-tempered mother down. "Mom! Wait! It's okay! We got it taken care of! We split off into groups to cover multiple parts of the plan and I didn't want to put her anywhere I was afraid she'd get hurt!"

"And were did you put her?" Naruto asked in complete seriousness.

"I had her go with Lady Tsunade and Shizune to infiltrate the hospital to make more of the antidote to Taka's serum, that way if anything happened at least she'd have two master healers to help her. Burandon and Guy-sensei went with them too."

"AW!" Lee exclaimed. "Most splendid! If my son and Guy-sensei are watching over young Hanami then her life is truly in the safest of hands!"

Tenten didn't feel quite as confident as her husband did, but at least she was proud of her son for stepping up to the plate and doing his part to keep someone safe. She smiled softly at that. 'As long as he remembers everything Lee and I taught him he should do fine.'

"Aunt Sakura," Sarada said, "you should know that the antidote you and Kabuto made worked. Hanami's chakra had fully recovered and she's feeling fine now."

Sakura could feel a massive weight lift off her shoulders as she let out a deep sigh of relief and she felt Naruto's hand on her shoulder. "Oh thank goodness!"

"What about Ōkami and Tsuki?" Hinata asked in desperation. "Where are my children?"

"And what about Bagu?" Shino added.

"They all went with Kurenai-sensei to the Strict Correctional Facility to look for all of you," Chōchō explained. "Their mission was to break you out."

The three former members of Team Kurenai looked worriedly at one another, especially Hinata.

"But if that's true, then my kids are stuck in some heavily guarded prison in the middle of some volcanic area outside the village surrounded by Taka spies and murdering criminal psychopaths!" Kiba growled in anger, Akamaru barking in agreement.

"We concluded that it would amount to a faulty mission too," Inojin added. "That was why Kakashi-sensei ordered me to send one of my ink birds to the prison as an escape plan."

"And did the escape plan work?" Shino questioned.

"...We do not know."

Hinata buried her head in her hands as she let out tears of worry. Kiba was quick to embrace his wife as Akamaru, sensing his mistress's distress, whimpered as he rubbed his nose against her.

"So what are we going to do now?" Chōji asked.

"For the moment we sit here and come up with a plan," Shikamaru answered. "With our chakra still lost to us and our weapons taken away we're not likely to be of much help right now."

"I just hope that Hanami's alright," Naruto said.

"She'll be fine."

The blonde man turned to face his now curiously confident and smiling wife. "How do you know?"

She turned her head to face him with a smirk. "Because I'm her mother, and I taught that girl a couple of things that even you don't know about."

* * *

"Back off man or I'll kill the kid!" the Anbu shouted as he held the kunai the girl's throat. "Believe me! I will! I'll kill her! Believe me!"

Shizune, Guy and Burandon held their ground. If any one of them made the wrong move it would surely cost Hanami her life.

Hanami herself, on the other hand suddenly felt a sense of courage come over her as she grabbed her attacker's arm and, with a strength that defied her age, pulled his arm and the kunai he was holding to her throat away from her neck. The attacker was puzzled at how the seven year old could be doing this, but anything he was thinking was cut off as so as she squeezed his arm so hard that the others could hear his bones crack.

**"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!"**

The Anbu dropped his weapon in pain as the girl elbowed him in the stomach, cracking a couple of ribs, and they threw him straight into the second Anbu with enough force to knock both of them out.

**"SHARRANOOOO!"**

Hanami slammed her fist into the ground and she did so with so much force that a miniature earthquake opened up in the ground, large enough to knock over a couple of trees and open a fissure in the earth that swallowed the two Taka ninja up to their shoulders, burying them so deep and tight into the ground that they could not struggle to get free of it.

Catching her breath from the effort she was not used to putting into anything, Hanami glared at her would-be killers and merely said, "I believe you."

Dusting off her hands, she turned around to face her three friends, each of whom staring at her with bug eyes and jaws a gap from shock and perhaps a little bit of horror. Hanami looked at them in totally oblivious, childish innocence. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"H-H-_Hanami?!_" Shizune struggled to recover from her shock at what she'd just witnessed. "W-When did..? How did...? Where did you learn to do _that?!_"

The pinkette turned back to the Anbu she had just defeated all by herself. "You mean that?" she asked as she pointed behind her in confusion, to which Shizune (and Gai and Burandon too) nodded still in a stupor. "Mommy taught me that. She gave me some lessons in chakra control and strength manipulation while no one else was looking."

"What?!" Gai responded in shock. "Why didn't you ever tell any of us?!"

"Mommy made me promise not to tell anyone, not even daddy and oniichan. She said it was our little secret."

"Why?" Burandon questioned in confusion. "Were you not allowed to learn those techniques?"

"No, mommy just wanted to see the looks on daddy and oniichan's faces when they found out."

The girl's friends all sweat dropped at that answer. Hanami herself giggled at their reactions.

"What are we going to do now?" Burandon asked. "Those two destroyed all of the antidote we'd created."

"We have no choice," Shizune said, "we need to get back to Lady Tsunade. I just hope she's alright..."

* * *

"AAAAAGGGGHHH!"

Tsunade threw a super hard, chakra-enhanced punch at the man she loved. It pained her to do it, but she knew that there was no way around it. He was under their spell now, and until control of him could be broken there was nothing else she could do. He could not be allowed to interfere with their mission.

There was a downside to fighting him however. He knew her. He knew her nearly her whole life. They'd trained together. They'd work together. And in their most lonely and most desperate moments they'd even slept together. There was nothing about the way she fights and what she can do that he did not know.

To that end, Jiraiya was able to dodge all of her moves and attacks with ease. He knew that he could not allow any of her blows to land on him or else he would be finished. After all, she once struck him with so much force that she'd sent him flying over 100 meters away! He dodged and parried all of her blows. He launched fire balls with toad oil, he formed Rasengans in his hands and thrust them into her direction, he even made a move to bite his finger to draw blood for his summoning technique, before she yanked her hand away and tripped him up under her feet.

"Well done Tsunade," Jiraiya quipped with an arrogant grin, but with controlled malice in his eyes. "There aren't many women who can knock me off my feet _that_ easily."

"I always was on top."

"Not always." He landed a sweeping kick at her legs, knocking her off her feet and to the ground. "Sometimes I was on top too. Have you forgotten?"

Whatever flirtation she had allowed to slip through her demeanor vanished instantly. She stared at her former lover with tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "Do you?"

Jiraiya blinked a couple of times, seemingly waking up from a dream, but then he snapped back by punching Tsunade right in the face with all his strength...At least, he would have, had she not caught his fist in her hand.

Standing up, she held onto his fist and used her chakra to enhance her strength to apply unbearably painful pressure to his hand.

"AAAAGGGHHH!"

"I can crush your bones any time I want to Jiraiya! Its only because I love you that I haven't! Now wake your ass up and see the light already you perverted lech!"

"WHITE LION'S MANE TECHNIQUE!"

Jiraiya reacted by focusing his chakra into his hair, causing it to the lengthen and form binds that the entrapped the woman. The hair coils were so thick that even Tsunade was having difficulty breaking free of it.

"It's time to end this."

Saying no more words, the old man began focusing his chakra into the palm of his hand. The ball of chakra grew larger, and larger, and larger...until finally it was so massive that it's size surpassed that of it's own creator. Tsunade's eyes actually widened in fear; she could usually heal from anything, but an attack like this, even she was having doubts.

"Jiraiya...please..."

There was nothing but coldness in the man's eyes. No emotion, no mercy, just pain. By the time the technique was completed, it's glowing blue light signaled the pending doom for the former Fifth Hokage. Closing her eyes with a single tear falling down her face, she braced herself for her fate...

"ULTRA-BIG BALL RASENGAN!"

...But then, her eyes snapped back open as the diamond seal upon her forehead was released and lines of violet chakra flowed all over her face and arms. Grasping the binds of hair holding her in place, the release of her seal gave her all the strength she needed, and then some, to snap Jiraiya's hair coils apart, giving her the opening she needed to dodge the colossal blow from the oversized Rasengan.

Rolling out of the way, she was able to get back onto her feet and parry the old man's next blow.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

With one single, gigantic punch, Tsunade sent Jiraiya flying back a couple of thousand feet away from the hospital grounds that had been their battle field, leaving behind a thousand foot trench in the ground with his feet as he was thrown back. When the old man finally landed, he did so with a thud, and a crater deep within the forest that could be seen from the village. The dust cloud was large enough to be seen above the tall trees.

Huffing and puffing, Tsunade restored her seal once again and started leaping through the woods with her ninja speed. It took her roughly eight minutes to get from the hospital to the crater sight. There, resting in the middle of the gigantic hole in the Earth, lay the unconscious Sannin, passed out and not able to move from the apocalyptic beating he'd just received.

Tsunade didn't hesitate to jump into the crater and stand over the body. His mouth was hanging open, he wasn't awake, and her unparalleled skills as a medic told her instantly that she had cracked several of his ribs. It was a miracle that blow didn't rupture his heart; hell, she was relieved that she didn't just punch clean through him!

She got on her knees and pressed her ear to his chest. He wasn't dead, she knew that, but is made her feel better to actually hear his heart beating again.

"Jiraiya!" she shook him desperately. "Jiraiya! Wake up! Please wake up! _PLEASE!_"

There was no response. No sound. He was out like a light. He was not dead but he was not waking up.

Now, in hindsight, there were maybe a dozen possible things Tsunade could have, and maybe should have done in this moment. She could have found something to bind his hands in case he was still under Uragi's control, but she had noting to bind him with and besides, he wasn't going to be able to do much with his ribs broken. She could have started healing him, but if he was still under mind control than she could not risk it.

No, instead she chose to do something that may not have been appropriate or even logical, but now that their fight was over her raw emotions would not allow for any other possibilities...She leaned her head down on the unconscious Toad Sage and kissed him, _hard_.

Tears were falling from her eyes again as she poured all of her feelings into the kiss. Memories, cherished memories that she had refused to fully appreciate until now all came rushing back as she poured her love for this man through her lips.

But then she heard something, a groaning sound. Pulling back, she could see the gray-haired man's eyes fluttering open, the blue light no longer reflected within them and a look of confusion on his face.

"Wh-Wha? What's going on? Where am I?" He suddenly took notice of who was resting on top of him. "Tsunade?"

Her only reaction to him was to kiss him again, this time even harder. Jiraiya was totally confused at first...but being the legendary pervert that he is, he quickly accepted the sudden display of affection and returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around her.

He ran her hands up and down her back as they kissed. He reached lower and lower...

And then Tsunade broke the kiss with a threatening glare. "Touch my ass now and I'll put you back in the grave, you understand me?"

He quickly pulled his hands away in panic. "Gomen!" He tried to sit up from his position on his back in the crater, only to groan in pain at his newly cracked ribs. "AAAGGGHHH!"

"Don't move! Let me heal you!"

Tsunade's hands instantly started glowing green as she proceeded to heal up her old friend.

"Tsunade...what happened? Why are my ribs cracked?"

"I punched you really hard."

"How? Why?"

"You need your summons on your shoulders gathering natural energy to even use your strongest power. _I_ don't."

"Okay, but _why_ were you and I fighting?! Where the heck in everybody?!"

"Don't you remember?"

The old man felt like he had woken up from a dream. "The least thing I remember was falling...into the water...after my fight with Nagato. I...I remember waking up again, something had pulled me out...I woke to see an old friend of mine...and then I can't recall a thing."

"Uragi?"

Jiraiya looks confused. "Yeah, how did you know? And how the hell am I alive?"

She kept healing him as Tsunade spoke. "Its a long story my love. Get some rest while I bring you up to speed. A lot has happened that you need to know."

"I'll bet." Something zapped into the old man mind in that instant, something he needed an answer to right away. "Where's Naruto?!"

"We don't know for sure. Assuming you really are back to your old self then we need to get you healed fast so we can help Shinachiku find him and the others."

The old man cocked an eyebrow, "Shinachi-_who?_"

The Slug Queen smiled in amusement. "Shinachiku Uzumaki, Naruto and Sakura's son."

_**"WHAT?!"**_

Tsunade chuckled, "Like I said my love, a lot has happened since you've been gone."

* * *

Mirai Sarutobi had exited the Jōnin Standby Station and was busy fighting off further waves of Taka agents disguised as her own village's forces. The death of Hanzo was a bitter blow for the girl, but she was kunoichi of Konohagakure and her village needed her help. So, no matter what her feelings were at the moment, she needed to stay focused and just keep fighting.

As she fought, a male ninja twice her size rushed at her with a giant sickle in his hand, but she was able to duck underneath the bladed weapon and slash his chest apart with her trench knives. Blood sprayed out and some of it did get on her, but she had no time to pay it any mind before another enemy attacked her.

This one was even larger than the last one, a true mountain of a man, coming at her with a gigantic sword. Mirai blocked the ninja's strikes with parries and slashes from her knives, but she could tell that this enemy had her strength clearly outmatched. That was how she could feel the ninja pushing her back, looming over her with his sword that was razor sharp and wider than her entire head!

The Taka ninja got a whack in with his mighty fist, knocking her into a nearby tree. It is possible that this ninja had poured some of his own chakra into his fist because the impact was hard enough to nearly break the girl's shoulder when she impacted.

"AGH!" Mirai cried out as she grasped her arm, dropping her knives in doing so.

She could hear the bellowing sound of the giant ninja's footsteps as he walked towards her, his sword drawn and an evil smirk on his rugged face. She watched as he stood over him with his sword drawn above his head, poised to come down and slice her in half...

"DEMONIC ILLUSION: TREE BINDING DEATH!"

The ninja started to panic. Why? Because he could see and feel the tree the girl collided with spurting its branches out and wrapping around his body. He struggled to break himself free but the tree was too strong.

Mirai stared on as she saw a familiar face suddenly immerge from within the tree itself. It was a 50 year old woman with black, untamed hair and distinctive red eyes with rings around them. The woman, with an outcry of anger, picked up the enemy's own sword, which he had dropped as he was being entrapped by the tree, and with a furious yell she jabbed the enemy's chest with the sword, killing him instantly.

"M-Mom...?"

Huffing and puffing from adrenaline, Kurenai calmed down at the sound of the voice of the girl whose life she had uncharacteristically lost control of her emotions in order to save. Looking down at the girl's face, tears started forming in her eyes as she dropped the sword and quickly wrapped her daughter into her arms in a tight and powerful hug.

"Mirai! Oh thank God! I was so terrified!"

The girl returned the hug immediately. "I was scarred too mom! I didn't know where you were or if you were safe!"

"Its alright dear, we're together now."

At that moment the sound of a bird chirping could be heard as the two kunoichi looked to see a large bird made out of ink land near them and three young Genin disembark from the beast's back. The bird itself them dissolved into a gelatinous mass of black ink.

"Mirai," Tsuki said, "thank goodness you're safe."

"Umm...yeah I'm fine...Hey wait! I know all of you. You're my mom's old student's kids right?"

"Yeah," Ōkami confirmed. "My sister and I are Kiba and Hinata's kids, and Bagu here is Shino-sensei's son." Bagu merely waved in acknowledgement while standing the back not saying anything.

"Hi kids," she waved back. "Thank you for keeping my mother safe."

"Other way around, " Tsuki said, "she was the one leading us."

"Sensei," Bagu spoke up at last, "I hate to spoil this reunion, but I think the best option for us now is to regroup with Shinachiku and his team and—"

The boy's statement was cut off by the sound of some sort of large explosion that occurred deep within the forest. The sound of trees and twigs snapping could be heard as a huge fireball-like explosion blasted up into the air.

"What the heck was that?!" Ōkami exclaimed.

_"That,"_ Kurenai said with her emotions back in check and her mind refocused on the task at hand, "is where the five of us are going next."

* * *

"So has anyone come up with a plan yet?" Kiba questioned with a clear tinge of impatience in his voice.

"Yes," Naruto answered. "We need to get out of this tunnel and free my parents, Gaara, Kankurō, Neji, Jiraiya and the other kages."

"Those are _objectives_ dobe, we need a plan here!" Sasuke snapped.

"Maybe we can break my father free of Uragi's control and he can tell us where the kages are being held?" Sunako suggested.

"And how do we know if that's even possible?" Inojin questioned.

"It _is_ possible!" Shinachiku said with determination in his voice.

"How do you know?" Sarada asked.

He turned to her and said, "Because as soon as we believe it isn't then we've lost them forever."

"My son's right," Naruto said. "We have to find a way to break Gaara and the other's free; at least one of them will have to know where Chōjūrō, Durai and Kurotsuchi are."

"Maybe, but that still doesn't answer the question of _how_ we're going to do that," Ino reiterated.

"Yeah," Chōji added. "What are we gonna do? Just punch them really hard and hope its enough to knock them out so that they're back to normal when they wake up?"

Randamu, who had been listening to the conversation like the rest of them, suddenly turned his head to the side as if he were speaking to some sort of invisible audience. "You see kids, what you just heard from the fat man's mouth is something writers call irony."

"You say something Randamu?"

"No! No nothing Chōji! I'm cool!" He whispered back to his audience, "That fat guy quip is between you and me, alright?"

"Well if were going to get my brother's and the others back—"

"HAHAHA! Wow! Would you look at that! _Brother's and the others!_ Temari just made a rhyme!" The rest of the company all glared at their masked comrade in annoyance for a second time. "Gomen."

Temari started talking again, "If we're going to get my brother's then we'd better get out of this hole—"

Now sooner had she said that than the ground began to shake violently. Naruto took charge as he grabbed hold of Sakura and Shinachiku. "Everybody hang on!"

The group were quite literally rocketed up out of the ground via a large earthquake that shot everyone into the air before they collided on the hard ground with a thud.

"Ugh!" Many of them groaned until they realized who was responsible for their current predicament.

Uragi was standing before them with Gaara, Kankurō, Suigetsu, Jūgo, and an entire platoon of twenty Taka shinobi at his side. It was obvious that Gaara's sand and earth-based jutsu were the reason why they were able to locate their chakra signatures underground.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Uragi shook his head. "Did you _really_ think you could get away from us so easily Uzumaki?"

"I really don't care what you think Uragi!" Naruto retorted defiantly. "Now where are my parents?"

"Unfortunately I was forced to send them both away to secure something important. Its a shame, I really would have preferred they be here to see this, but the Kazekage's skill set was too vital to finding you out here."

Shikamaru, Sasuke and Sakura's brains were all on the same wavelength, as was Naruto's, Shinachiku's, Sarada's and Shikadai's: 'They're guarding the kages. We find them, we find everyone.'

"Now if you don't mind," the aged Taka leader began again, "I'd like to get this over with—"

_**"WAIT!"**_

Everybody stopped at the shockingly loud voice. Stepping through the crown of Konoha shinobi was none other than the Missing-nin with the Mouth, with an angry posture and his shoulders square in frustration.

"Now listen here! I've been waiting through this fanfic for something cool to do ever since the eighth freaking chapter! Well no more! I'm done waiting around being nothing but the comic relief! I'm gonna have my big action sequence now and all you Taka a-holes all going to go down because of it! Do I make myself clear?!"

There was a big, long, _very_ confused and awkward silence from everybody for a solid ten seconds before Uragi finally shook his head to free himself from his stupor. "You know what? I've had it with your nonsense Randamu! Its time that someone shut you up for good! Taka ninja! Kill this fool!"

The shinobi brandished their weapons and got into their offensive and defensive poses. Randamu stood alone, with Naruto and the others instructed to get behind him as he dealt with this.

"What the heck is he doing?" Shinachiku asked aloud. "The idiot's outnumbered twenty to one! He's going to get himself killed!"

"No he won't," Sarada told him. "Trust me, you're in for a show Shina."

Staring at his opponents, Randamu reached behind his back and unsheathed his katana blades, flipping them around in his hands for a moment before speaking: Alright boys...let's dance."

With that, all twenty of the Taka ninja let out a yell and charged at the masked ninja.

"WAIT! Wait! Wait!" Randamu suddenly put his hand up to signal them to stop, which they all did out of confusion. "Sorry! My bad! I almost forgot my jams first." He then turned his head back in the direction of his invisible audience and pointed his finger at said nonexistent force. "Author sir, cue the music please?"

Somehow, for absolutely no reason, a romantic ballad started playing throughout the forest. Music was coming from some sort of invisible Hammerspace, catching everybody, both on the good and evil side, off guard, save for the crackpot who had requested the music be played in the first place. "Domo arigato good sir! _Now_ I'm ready to get to work!"

And then, with swords in hand, Randamu started slowly moving his way towards the still confused, but no less defensive, enemy ninja before him and then he started doing the last anybody expected (or wanted) him to do...he started singing.

_There'll be no strings to bind your hands  
Not if my love can't bind your heart  
And there's no need to take a stand  
For it was I who chose to start  
_  
Randamu walked right up to the Taka ninja standing out in front. The ninja was poised to attack, and did so by trying to plunge his kunai straight into the missing-nin's chest. But Randamu easily caught the weapon and held the ninja's arm out to prevent him using it any more. He then signaled (with an obscene gesture) to the other ninja to stay were the were, then he whisper a few more lyrics right into the captive ninja's ear:

_I see no need to take me home  
I'm old enough to face the dawn_

And then the ninja felt it. With a nasty, vulgar squishing sound, he felt Randamu's sword stab clean through his body and poke out the other side. He held the ninja in the air like a human beef kabob for less than a second before throwing his corpse at his teammates with inhuman force and speed, knocking many of them down while he hastily went about splicing and dicing the lot of them!

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel  
_  
After decapitating one ninja, he the caught another that was charging him and stabbed his sword through his cheek and thought he other side of his face. He ran his fingers delicately along the cheek of his latest corpse.

_Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby_

He then yanked his sword out of the ninja's face and thrust it behind him, impaling the abdomen of an enemy standing right behind him.

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel_

Yanking the sword out of the one behind him, he quickly pulled it out and thrust both swords into the bodies of two ninja charging him on either side.

_Then slowly turn away from me_

The members of the hero's group who's names weren't Sasuke, Karin and Sarada were utterly disgusted by the bizarrely grim scene they were witnessing. Many of them could not recall the last time they had seen a shinobi kill people this ruthlessly and effectively, and none of them could remember seeing any of them do it is this bizarre a fashion, to a song that, chances are, none of them were ever going to be able to hear the same way again!

Randamu had just stabbed another ninja through the neck when he started singing again as his head was pointed up and in view of the sun.

_Maybe the sun's light will be dim  
And it won't matter anyhow_

"You bastard! You'll suffer for this!" yet another of the Taka ninja screamed as hie charged at the masked man, only to cough up blood as he first felt his legs chopped off, then as soon as his body fell to the floor Randamu twirled his sword around and stabbed him straight in the heart.

_If morning's echo says we've sinned,  
Well, it was what I wanted now_

He had killed eight out of twenty Taka ninja so far (not including his mind controlled allies who would be an entirely different kind of challenge), and he hadn't even broken a sweat. His red suit was practically soaked in blood already, but it was alright since its red color made is hard for people to see him bleed anyway.

Randamu stood before the twelve remaining ninja and reached into his pocket...

_And if we're victims of the night,_

...He pulled something out...

_I won't be blinded by the light_

...It was a miniature mirror that he used to reflect the rays of the sun back at his opponents. This caused them to flinch and thus gave him the opening to decapitate five of them in one quick, deadly swipe of his sword. Blood sprayed out and heads rolled to the ground as she kept fighting and singing to the mysterious music.

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel  
Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby  
Just call me angel of the morning, angel  
Then slowly turn away,  
I won't beg you to stay with me  
Through the tears of the day,  
Of the years, baby baby baby_

Randamu performed insanely impressive and quick flips as he went to work on the seven remain Taka ninja. He cut one of them clean down the center, leaving his corpse to fall apart in two halves.

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel_

He stabbed two more at once straight through their open mouths.

_Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby_

He then flung his two latest corpses into another ninja and as they landed on him and knocked him to the ground, Randamu stabbed clean through the already dead ninja and pierced the bottom one's heart.

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel_  
_Just touch my cheek before you leave me, darling_

There were only two of the Taka ninja left and they were sick of this game. One of them seemed to be preparing some sort of lightning nature jutsu and focused it into his hand. The other was combing two different chakra natures together to for large spears of ice in his hands.

_Just call me angel of the morning, angel_

The two ninja charged at Randamu as one, but once they were in close range, Randamu instantly and with no apparent effort used his katanas to cut the arm off of the lightning user, knocking him to the side, catch the other ninja's ice spear in his hand as he kicked the other ninja's severed arm, still with lightning formed around it, into the chest of the ice user, electrifying him the death, as he stabbed the now one armed lightning user straight in the forehead with the ice spear clear through his brain. All of this occurred with about two seconds!

_Just touch my cheek before you leave me, dar-ar-ling_

As the song and the music finally came to an end, Randamu was left in a pool of twenty dead, horrifically mutilated bodies as he pointed one of his swords at Uragi and his mind controlled slaves. "You see! I _am_ an angel...an Angel of _DEATH!_ And now I'm coming for _YOU_, Uragi!"

There was a second of silence before he turned his head back to his friends and smiled jovially beneath his mask. "That sure was a badass one liner to end this chapter on, huh guys? ...Guys?"

What Randamu found when he turned his head were the faces of many disgusted adults and some children who looked utterly traumatized. A couple of them were even barfing up chunks in disgust from the massacre they had just bore witness too.

"What? Too much? Sorry, but the author _did_ warn you all about the violent ending, didn't he?"

* * *

Yes I did Randamu, yes I did...

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that, and I apologize if any of you were as traumatized as the kids were. In case you couldn't guess, that ending sequence where I showed off Randamu's brutal swordsmanship was very much inspired by the "Deadpool" movie, the very character that Randamu is based on. That also explains the use of the song, "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton, which played over the hilarious (and hilariously gory) main title sequence at the start of that movie and also during the original test footage that got leaked online and helped finally get the movie a green light. I remember that one of my most loyal readers and friends requested that I give Randamu a scene set to the other iconic song from that movie, "Careless Whisper" by George Michael, but I always had the idea to use Newton's song instead because I just found it funnier and more ironic...plus I've been associating it with Deadpool longer since it was used in the test footage. Sorry if that reader is disappointed, but I hope the scene satisfied anyway.

In speaking of comic book references, I bet a lot of you were caught off guard by the reveal of Hanami having her mother's monster strength. That scene, specifically the dialogue in it, was inspired by a scene in "The Dark Knight Returns" in which Batman has to save a toddler from the Mutant Gang and one of the mutants holds a gun to the boy's head and angrily threatens to kill him if Batman makes a move. Batman shoots a gun (long story) to stop the mutant and save the kid (to this day I'm not sure if he killed him or not, I assume he knocked him out), and Batman ends the scene by saying "I believe you." Those of you who saw "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" may remember that Zack Snyder adapted this scene into the sequence where Batman saves Martha Kent from Lex Luthor's hired thugs and the lead thug, Anatoli Knyazev (known in the comics as the KGBeast), holds a freaking flamethrower to Martha's head...It was the best action sequence in the whole movie to be completely honest. The scene was also adapted into the two-part "Dark Knight Returns" animated movie and before that into an episode of "The New Batman Adventures" called "Legends of the Dark Knight."

Of course, the twist I threw on the scene was that, instead of having Shizune, Burandon or Guy rescue Hanami, now that she's got her chakra back, I had Hanami finally stop being a damsel in distress and save herself, so she gets to quote Batman's line for herself instead!

There was one more very loose homage to "The Dark Knight Returns" I threw in as well. Right before Randamu's "Angle of the Morning" sequence begins Shinachiku vocalizes how crazy it is that he's taking on twenty guys by himself. But Sarada has seen him in action many times by now as part of her father's team and so she assures him "You're in for a show tonight Shina." This was somewhat inspired by a scene in DKR where Batman first appears in costume after ten years to capture some criminals getting away in a car, and when the two cops chasing them see Batman appear the older cop backs off promising the rookie cop that he's in for a show. This scene was also adapted by Christopher Nolan in "The Dark Knight Rises."

...And yeah, the way Tsunade broke Jiraiya free of his mind control may have been a more extreme version of how Black Widow freed Hawkeye of Loki's control in "The Avengers." Owning up to a deus ex machina there, sorry.

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope the chapter itself was okay, and I apologize again for the wait.

Until next time, see ya!


	44. Chapter 42--Fruits of Our Labor

Hey everyone, thesaiyanjedi here again with the newest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure. I apologize again for the delay, but I think you guys will enjoy this one.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 42: Fruits of Our Labor**

"You're a sick bastard dude!"

Randamu smiled beneath his mask as he gave Chōji a thumbs up for his comment. "Thank you Chō-ster! I live to please. Don't worry, your insides will get back to normal soon enough. Seriously though you guys, you'd think that a bunch of professional ninjas would be able to handle the sight of a little blood and guts."

_"A little?!"_ Ino protested. "That was the most disgusting blood bath I've ever seen! And in front of the children for goodness sake!"

"Aw forget about it blondie! You know kids today, they can't stay focused on anything for more than a couple of seconds. Trust me, they'll forget all about what they'd just seen and be back to their same old awkward, socially inexperienced selves before you know it...That, or they'll repress the experience their whole lives and develop some kind of psychological disorder as a result of it. Whatev's."

There was a long, awkward silence that followed. But when everyone finally came to, Uragi spoke up to give orders to his minions. "Enough of this. Lord Kazekage, Kankurō, Suigetsu, Jūgo, deal with them."

Gaara, without a trace of emotion to be found, focused his sand back out of it's gourd and got it into a battle stance. The sand flowed like waves, but all it would take was a mental command from Gaara and it would turn solid to form any kind of deadly weapon he could imagine.

Kankurō pulled out a sealing scroll and released his puppets, all four of them. One of them was Karasu, a three-eyed, four-armed humanoid with jagged teeth and a spiky brown hairstyle protruding from the top of its head and framing the sides. Then there was Kuroari, which like Karasu had three eyes with a dark disheveled hairstyle, but it was shaped like a barrel and had a much longer head with a bucket-shaped face sporting two sharp red horns and six arms. The third puppet, Sanshōuo, looked like a giant black salamander. The fourth and final puppet was a Sasori. Yes, _the_ Sasori. The puppet body that once held the "core of living flesh" of the late Akatsuki member, but after his death at the hands of Sakura and Lady Chiyo, Sasori's puppet body was recovered by Kankurō and modified to befit his own techniques.

Suigetsu drew his giant sword from his back, his usual sense of wit and indifference nowhere to be seen.

Jūgo absorbed natural energy, initiating the Sage Transformation techniques of his clan, which served to heighten his so often unstable rage and fury. Jūgo was transforming, his left arm transformed into a piston-like ram. He looked insane, overly anxious to do some serious harm. There were twenty-five targets standing right in front of him and oh boy, was he feeling anxious to start killing all of them!

"Gaara, Kankurō..." Temari pleaded, "My brothers, _please!_ This isn't you. This isn't who you are. Gaara, you're not a monster, you never were! You can't just hurt your own family like this. I'm your _sister!_ Sunako's your _daughter!_ Don't do this!"

Shikamaru added his voice to his wife's "Gaara, Kankurō, listen to Temari. If you do this, you'll both regret it for the rest of your lives."

"Shut up!" Kankurō shouted. "My brother and I live only to serve Taka now! We have no time for your foolishness!"

"Indeed," Gaara said coldly as he molded his sand into impaling spikes that were pointing directly at his own sister. "Taka's will is absolute. Whatever bonds my brother and I once had are gone now. This is who we are now. This is all I ever was."

"Bullshit!"

The former jinchūriki and his brother turned to source of the voice. Naruto appeared furious with his old friend. "You are not a monster Gaara! You never were! That's just Uragi filling your head with lies and you **know** that! You wanted more than anything to prove yourself worthy to be the Kazekage, to form bonds with those you love in this world, to build a family for yourself with the woman you loved and your beautiful daughter. **That's** the Gaara I became friends with! And now you expect me to believe that all of it was for nothing?! That none of those bonds mattered?! **Liar!**"

A light did seem to be leaving the Sand Sibling's eyes. It was like he was waking up from a dream, but only barely. "Wha-What?"

"Father," Sunako spoke. "Please? Come back to us. Do it for me. Do it for mother. Do it for our friends. I love you father."

Something about those four words started to do the Kazekage in. He was coming to. The blue light in his eyes was gone. His sand slumped and fell apart into a mass on the forest floor. Gaara appeared distraught, horrified. He fell to his knees, staring at the sky.

"Gaara!" Kankurō shouted. "Wake up! Do not disobey Lord Uragi's will!"

"Yes," Uragi said simply as he pulled a familiar glowing blue gem out of his pocket. "Do what must be done."

That was all it took. Seeing the gem again was all it took to bring the Kazekage back under Uragi's will. The blue returned to the young man's eyes, and he stood back up. He was just as much a puppet of Taka as Kankurō's own puppets were to him.

"The man you called brother, friend, father..." he spoke to them all, "...That man is dead. There is only Taka for me now."

As Naruto gritted his teeth in anger, Temari could feel tears welling up in her eyes as her brother's were seemingly lost forever. Even Sunako, so often the emotionally withheld warrior of the Sand Village, was shedding a single tear down her face.

"Let's get this over with!" Suigetsu said as he got his sword ready for a killing blow. "I've got to sharpen my sword sometime after this."

"Yeah," Jūgo added, "I'm just itching to smash some heads in!"

Kankurō moved his fingers allowing the chakra threads to manipulate his puppets, each of whom opened up to reveal their weapons. "Boys, its time to play."

Chōchō turned to her two teammates and frowned. "Well this isn't the way I hoped this would go."

"No kidding," Shikadai added. "A couple of Taka agents is one thing, but both my uncle's and Sarada's dad's friends? That's a whole other level of power!"

"Our predicament does seem dire," Inojin pointed out.

"LIGHTNING BLADE!"

Kakashi swooped in with one of his signature lightning jutsu to crack the stone spikes that Gaara had created.

"SHURIKEN SHADOW CLONE TECHNIQUE!"

Konohamaru threw one of his spare shuriken and used his chakra to create thousands of clones from it. He aimed the barrage at all four of their mind controlled allies, and the sheer number of weapons made the technique almost impossible for them all to dodge. Gaara, Suigetsu and Jūgo all took some significant damage, but Kankurō got the least of it because he had used his puppets and shields to block the shuriken storm.

"Kids!" Kakashi shouted to the children. "Get you parents out of here! We'll cover you!"

Sarada raised her voice in concern. "But Kakashi-sensei—?"

"Do what we say!" Konohamaru shouted back. "That's an order!"

Shinachiku was not about to leave his sensei to fight this outnumbered battle all by himself. "Konohamaru-sensei, I can't leave you!"

"Shina! Don't be foolish! You kids and your parents are the best hope this village has of making it through this! As long as you kids live than Konoha has a future! Now fulfill your mission and regroup with your parents to fix all of this! GO!"

"Shina!" Sakura called out to her son as she grabbed him by the hand. "Konohamaru's right, we have to go."

"But mom—?"

"Shina!" Naruto demanded. "Listen to your mother! I know he's your sensei but there's nothing you can do for him now!"

A feeling of furious determination came over the boy in that instant. Narrowing his eyes, he shook him hand free of his mother and declared, "The hell there isn't! I didn't spend all that time training under Kakashi and Konohamaru-sensei just for them to let it all go to waste now! Come on Sarada! We're going!"

"Hai!"

"Sarada!" Karin yelled as she grabbed her daughter's arm. "What do you think you're doing! Come with us!"

"Mom, please?! Trust me!"

"Let her go."

Karin, Naruto and Sakura all turned in shock at what their friend had just said. Sasuke did not flinch as he made his statement clear. "Karin, our daughter has made her point clear that she is not just a little girl anymore. She is a shinobi of Konohagakure." The Uchiha rubbed his previously punched jaw for emphasis, as if his own words were bringing back the painful dose of reality she had dealt him with her fist. "I don't know what these two have planned but whatever it is we need to stand aside and let them do their job. We need to believe in them."

The weight of his words had their desired effect on the other three parents. Karin let go of Sarada's hand and looked her in the eyes as she told her, "Please be safe."

"I will. I love you mom."

"Shinachiku," Naruto said as he took Sakura's hand, "your mother and I are proud of you." The Orange Hokage smirked. "Go kick some ass son."

The boy didn't say anything in response, settling instead for a confident smile and a thumbs up. He and the girl left the company and ran back toward the still ongoing battle, the boy making a familiar hand sign as he went.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Three identical shadow clones of Shinachiku poofed into existence and ran beside him and the boy focused his chakra into his hand. As for the clones, one of them worked to keep his gathering chakra under control, another adding a change in chakra nature, and another clone to add yet another change...

Sarada, meanwhile, was also preparing the new jutsu she had been working on with her senseis. Focusing her chakra as she ran at full gallop, she could feel lighting forming around her arm, the familiar chirping sound coming from it as she formed the famed Chidori she had long since learned from her father...

At _that_ was when the twists happened. The spiraling sphere of chakra was contained and the Rasengan was formed in the boy's hand. But what happened then was that the jutsu started emitting four small white blade-like protrusions from its center, making it resemble a miniature fūma shuriken.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. 'Is...Is that...? When did my son learn how to...? He's learned how to change his chakra nature and reform his Rasengan!'

Sakura was also mesmerized. 'I...I can't believe it!'

And then it happened. As his parents and all of their friends watched on, Shinachiku's jutsu changed again. The jutsu still retained its current shape, but now there was one added twist...The jutsu was on **FIRE!**

Yes! Having discovered his duel chakra nature while training with combined nature transformation with Kakashi and Konohamaru, Shinachiku had learned not only how to change the chakra nature of his grandfather's technique, but he could take it even further than that. He had combined his wind chakra nature with his secondary fire chakra nature to create a jutsu that was entirely his own.

Sarada, meanwhile, had taken her Chidori a step further as well. The lightning was surrounding her arm just as it should, but then her arm caught on fire in addition to that! The fire was not burning her, it was a part of her. She had combined the technique with her clan's fire nature to make Kakashi's technique something all her own. Her father may have learned how to channel his Chidori through his sword, but even he had never accomplished this.

Kakashi and Konohamaru were too preoccupied with fighting their four opponents to notice their two newest students charging at them with the fruits of all their labor. And notice it they did not, until they could hear the unmistakable chirping of Sarada's Chidori mixed with the sound of a burning flame.

"Sensei! Get out of the way!"

"Move!"

The two Jōnin were quick to move in reaction to the sound of their voices. They held their opponents back as long at they could to ensure they were held in place so the jutsu could make contact. But as they were doing so, they same thought kept going through their heads as it did the children's: _"Please don't let it be fatal."_

Closer and closer the kids got with their attacks. And then, finally, they were within range to deliver the finishing blow.

"WIND AND FIRE RELEASE: RASENGAN!"

"ROAR! SCORCHING CHIDORI!"

Shinachiku has thrust the flaming Rasengan forward and the sheer force of the attack was enough to burn Gaara intensely. His Absolute Defense, normally able to block and deflect anything that came at him, was blocked this time because Sunako had covertly manipulated her own sand to counter her father's.

Sarada, like a tactician, thrust her attack into Jūgo since she knew his size and ferocity made him the greater threat of her parent's two companions.

Both attacks burned the enemies like a furnace. They cried out in agony as Jūgo fell to his knees from the burning and the electrocuting and Gaara was sent flying through the woods behind him like a flaming rocket from the force of the boy's wind chakra. He went crashing many yards through the forest until he finally hit the forest floor in an explosive collision of fire and dust. His gourd had fallen off of his belt as he was thrown back, meaning that his sand was not able to cushion the blow. The Kazekage was knocked out cold.

"Gaara!"

"Jūgo!"

Kankurō and Suigetzu shouted as the former prepared to move his puppets and the latter readied his sword to hack at the kids. However, they were both held back. Suigetsu was held in place by what looked like large pieces of wood wrapping around him, squeezing his body into stilted submission and wrapping so tightly around his wrists that he was forced to drop his sword. He did not need to look to see that Yamato was the one doing this.

Kankurō, on the other hand, was held in place by a very different, yet familiar force. His entire body could not move, and if he could not move his hands, then that meant his puppets were just as immobile as their master was. He had just enough strength to turn his head to see the face of who he knew had to be responsible for this...Shikadai.

'I'm sorry Uncle Kankurō,' they boy thought to himself, 'but it needs to be this way for your own good.'

"Now Inojin! Kakashi! Chōchō! Do it!"

At Yamato's plea, Inojin got out his sketch book and quickly scribbled a couple of crude looking creatures which he then brought to life off the page. He focused his mind to transfer the creatures into the minds of the captive Swordsman of the Mist and the Puppet Master of Sunagakure.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Suigetsu screaming in agony as he was forced to endure the intense pain of being bound up in Yamato's wood jutsu and his brain getting invaded by a child's drawing.

"ENOUGH!" Kankurō yelled in pain at his own mind's inner torment. His family—Temari, Shikamaru, Shikadai and Sunako—all winced (especially Temari) as he was being force to endure this torture.

Thank goodness it would not need to last much longer as Kakashi used his ninja speed to dash behind Kankurō and lay a blow behind the neck, one that was of enough force to knock out the elite Sand warrior. Shikadai released his Shadow Possession Justu allowing his uncle to fall to the ground, his chakra threats fading away with his consciousness, thus leaving his puppets motionless.

Poor Shigetsu received a much less merciful relief from his pain unfortunately as Chōchō enlarged her fist and slammed it down on his body with enough force to knock him out. Yamato released his wood jutsu to free the now unconscious body.

"Damn it!" Uragi muttered to himself as he watched all of this. 'I cannot believe these children got the best of us like this! Four powerful servants recruited to Taka's cause, a former jinchūriki for crying out loud! And Uzumaki and Uchiha's little brats helped take them all out! How the hell do children that young learn to invent their own jutsu like that! _Damn it!_'

"URAGI!"

The Taka leader was broken from his thoughts at the sound of the boy's furious and determined voice. Looking in his direction with a grin expression, he listened as the boy continued to speak.

"You will pay for everything you've done to my family and friends and to this village! Surrender yourself and the chakra gems to us right now and face justice for your crimes!"

"Justice?" Uragi laughed out loud. "Justice?! _You!_ A child born from this false idol you call father, the son of a man who claims to be a hero but in truth is ignorant to the harsh realities and disorder of the real world? You dare speak to me about _justice?!_ No! You watch you're tongue you little bastard!"

"Don't you dare talk to my son that way you son of a bitch!" Sakura yelled in rage.

"Uragi!" Naruto shouted, adding his voice to his wife's. "One way or another you're going to get the fate you deserve from all this!"

Uragi heard what Naruto said but he did not acknowledge it. Instead he glared at the blonde Genin who had just become a huge thorn in his side and said to him: "I'm afraid your interference has got me worried about some of my other priorities right now. Go ahead and savor this insignificant victory while you can, but mark my words boy! I have managed to best your father! And I will best you too!"

Something in Shinachiku snapped in that moment. He quickly whipped out the kunai his Uncle Sasuke has given his for his first birthday and flung it with all his strength straight at the traitorous old man's head...It never made contact. Mere milliseconds before the weapon would have found its mark, Uragi had used the green Space Gem in his possession to teleport himself away to some place none of them knew. The kunai therefore missed its target entirely and instead embedded itself into the tree that was behind where Uragi once stood.

"Damn it!" Shinachiku shouted as he fell to his knees and punched the forest floor with his fist.

Sarada went over to her friend and got on her knees beside him. She took his hand in her own, causing him to look at her.

"We'll catch him Shina. We will."

As furious as he was just a moment ago, something about being in this girl's presence always made him feel more at ease. "T-Thank you Sarada." He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"_Awww_...Isn't that cute!"

Sarada turned her head back in annoyance at the sound of the voice she knew all too well. "What are you doing Randamu?"

"Nothing. Just admiring two lovebirds is all."

Shinachiku blushed bright red. "We're not—!"

Randamu started singing: _"Shina and Sarada sitting in a tree. F-U-C—"_

Sarada cut him off by standing up and pointing a threatening finger straight at the whacky mercenary's head. "DON'T...YOU...DARE!"

Randamu didn't finish the lyric, but he did keep going with the song: _"First comes love, then comes marriage_—OOOOOOHHHH!"

Sarada had cut him off once again by owning up to her threat. She ran up to the her masked teammate and in irritation she kicked him right in the genitals. The poor fool was forced to drop to his knees and grab his testicle as he curled in a fetal position. Funny, this was the second time in only one day a woman kicked him in his manhood. It was enough to make Randamu realize that if he had any intentions of ever having children, he'd better learn to stop pushing his luck.

For the record, seeing the poor bastard aching in pain caused the chained up men (and their sons) to all groan in empathy. The women (and their daughters) didn't react the same way, in fact, Karui even laughed at it.

"Alright then," Sarada continued as if it were no big deal; she knew he would heal fast anyway. "Lets get our parent's unchained so we can regroup and come up with a new plan."

"How?" Inojin questioned. "We don't have a key of unlock their chains."

"Yes we do."

The kids all turned to Sunako who held up a metal key ring with a set of about five keys on it.

"Where the heck did you get that?!" Chōchō asked in disbelief.

"I stealthily used my sand to snatch it off of Uragi's belt before he teleported away. He never even noticed."

"Cousin, you're a genius!" Shikadai proclaimed in an unusually large display of enthusiasm.

"You and your Uncle Shika are the geniuses in our family cousin...But I thank you for the complement."

Shinachiku, after yanking his favorite kunai out of the tree, happily went over and shook the Sand mistress's hand. "Domo arigato Sunako, you did great. Now come on! Lets get our parent's out of this mess so we can find Uragi and finish kicking that bastard's ass!"

* * *

Within the Konoha Rock, Iruka Umino was staying vigilant. he had taken these children under his wing and had assumed them as his responsibility, and while Anko and her squad worked to crush the break in, he would guard these children with his life.

"Iruka-sensei," one of he children spoke, "we're going to be all right, are we?"

The middle-aged Jōnin looked down at the young student that was tugging at his shirt and placed a reassuring hand on the child's shoulder. "We're going to be just fine dear. One way or another the enemy is going to be defeated and our home is going to be saved."

"But who's going to save us if the Seventh Hokage isn't here?" another student asked in worry.

"Lord Seventh hasn't abandoned us dear. I give you my word that Naruto will return and when he does he will find a way to rescue us all."

"How do you know sensei?"

The old man smiled. "Because I know Naruto better than anyone."

"Yeah!" yet another Academy student spoke up. "Iruka-sensei's right! Naruto-sama will save us! He always does! And besides, we've got Shinachiku out there fighting for us too!"

Still another student, an obnoxious bully, took his turn to speak. "You mean the rich blonde kid? Shino-sensei's little teacher's pet? What's that dweeb going to do? He's just a kid like the rest of us."

"Hey!" another student yelled back. "That kid is the son of the Seventh Hokage! He's also the Fourth's grandson, the top student of his graduating class and the student of Konohamaru-sensei himself Show some respect!"

"Who asked you jerk!" The bully protested by throwing a punch right into the kid's jaw, knocking him to the floor.

"HEY!" The kid's friends saw what happened and was quick to punch back. The bully's gang came to his side and started laying into the kid's friends. Others were quick to jump in and before long the safe house had become the sight of a full on melee.

**"ENOUGH!"**

The room fell silent once again at the volume of Iruka's voice. The man was usually the nicest and most compassionate teacher in the village, but if you got on his bad side then he wouldn't hesitate to lay into you for it, as Naruto himself could attest.

"Now everyone see here! We are **not** going to be fighting among ourselves! Don't forget that we are all here to stay quiet and remain hidden! Do any of you _want_ the enemy to hear us and—?"

_BANG!_

Iruka's stern lecture what cut short by the shocking and unexpected pounding on the hidden door. The kids instantly forgot their anger and became terrified. Those Taka agents were right outside the door and they could kill them all. Yes, Iruka was a strong shinobi, but he wasn't Kakashi and he certainly wasn't Naruto or Sasuke. And lets face it, he wasn't necessarily in the springtime of his years anymore either.

Iruka knew all this, but it mattered not when these children's futures depended on his being able to protect them.

"Children," he said to all of them and he whipped out a kunai and got into a battle stance. "All of you get behind me."

The children did not object to what he had told them. Gathering behind their sensei in fear, they braced for the worst. Those Taka ninja were all full grown adults and knew far more about being a shinobi than any of them did. If they proved too much for Iruka to handle, then it meant that these kids were as good as dead.

The door was opening...sweat dripped down Iruka's forehead as his eyes narrowed in focus...This was it...any moment now...

...What greeted them on the other side of the door was the face of a familiar kunoichi with a loud voice and a snarky attitude. "Hey everybody, how y'all doing?"

Iruka dropped his guard in relief. "Anko?" The woman nodded. "Oh thank goodness. You had me and the kids worried for a moment there."

"Hey! Don't go turning coward on me now Iruka! We've got a long way to go before this day is over with."

Anko stepped through the door and into the hideout, followed by her Anbu squadron. "Listen Iruka, my guys put up a good fight and those Taka pricks have been taken down—"

"The Archives? Are they safe Anko?"

A vein appeared on the woman's forehead. "That's what I was just about to say if you'd let me finish talking! Yes, the archives are safe and the enemy's paper bombs are defused." She then started giving orders to her squadron. "Alright boys! I want a perimeter stationed around Iruka and these kids and guards stationed outside. Until this crisis is over, _nobody_ gets in or out of here unless _I_ allow it! Is that understood?!"

The Anbu all shouted as one! "HAI!"

As the Anbu filed in and took their positions, Iruka noticed something wasn't quite right. "Umm...Anko? I might be getting delusional in my old age, but I don't remember your squadron being this big when we parted ways earlier."

"Oh, that's because they came with us Iruka-sensei?"

Anko stood aside to allow the source of the voices to enter the room. They were a man in his early thirties with glasses and brown hair wearing a simple black shirt that zipped up in the middle, and a woman of equal age with orange hair tied in large pigtails and a sleeveless pink shirt and a large red bow tie. The man was wiping a trail of snot from his nose.

"Udon and Moegi?" Iruka remembered both of these two very well; he had taught them and Konohamaru at the Academy before the three of them were assigned to Ebisu's team.

"Hai Iruka-sensei," Moegi responded. "We led a team of Anbu that got civilians out of the library before a paper bomb went off on the inside. We followed the enemy responsible to the Archives where we intercepted them as they were being approached by Anko-sensei and her forces."

"We volunteered ourselves to assist her in her mission and together our team's were enough to overwhelm and defeat the enemy," Udon explained as he finished clearing his nose.

"Thank you, both of you," Iruka responded. "These children owe you their lives."

"Sensei," Moegi said," we have some wounded Anbu with us that need to get inside."

"Hai, bring them in."

The room cleared way to allow the injured ninja inside. They were laid down in the center of the room where a number of them groaned and winced from their injuries. Some of them had severe burns, others appeared to have broken bones or deep cuts that needed to be wrapped in bandages to avoid bleeding out.

"Forgive us sensei," udon said, "but we couldn't risk taken them to the hospital during an internal invasion. There was no telling whether any of the hospital staff—"

"Was a Taka agent in disguise. No, don't apologize for anything you two, you're doing the right thing." Iruka looked at the injured shinobi and sighed to himself. "Still, these men need medical attention and neither Anko or myself are experts on medical ninjutsu."

"I can help," Moegi spoke up. "I attended one of Lady Sakura's classes a while back. I'm not gifted or anything, but I should be able to heal some of their gashes and cuts."

"And I can get some wrappings and bandages ready to help the severely injured," Udon suggested.

The old man nodded his head. "Alright then, both of you do what you can."

The kunoichi went to work, using some of her limited healing jutsu to start assisting the wounded, while her former teammate started going through his shinobi gear looking for anything he could use to provide makeshift first aid to some of these men. Udon also asked some of the children if they had anything they knew could be of help and to hand it over.

Anko stood beside Iruka. "Kids sure do grow up fast, don't they?"

"They sure do." The middle aged man zoned out as he started thinking to himself. 'Naruto, where are you?'

* * *

"Mom? How much further do you think it is?"

Kurenai turned her head back as they ran through the forest. "Almost there Mirai."

"How do we know that whatever caused that explosion in the forest is something we even _want_ to find?" Ōkami questioned.

"Onii-chan," Tsuki said, "Kurenai-sensei hasn't led us astray so far so we cannot afford to doubt her now."

"I agree," Bagu said simply.

The male Hyūga-Inuzuka twin huffed in annoyance. "Figures you guys would go and gang up on me like that."

"Hang on!" the woman shouted to her team. "I think we're here."

The team came to a rest in the middle of an open area in the middle of the woods. There was a gigantic crater created in the earth caused by whatever, or _whoever_, had caused whatever it was that just happened.

Squinting her eyes, Kurenai could just barely make out what looked like two figures standing in the center of the crater. Or rather, one of them seemed to be lying down while the other was crouching over them. But they were still standing too far away to properly make out who each of them were and they could not afford to take the chance that they might not be still more Taka ninja.

"Ōkami, Tsuki," Kurenai addressed both of the twins, "tell us what you see down there."

"Hai sensei!" They both said as one while they focused their chakra, their loyal ninken Akamoro and Akamiri standing at their side. Their chakra in place, they both opened their eyes. "BYAKUGAN!"

With their enhanced vision, the siblings were able to see in the middle of the crater who the two figures where, one of whom the knew, they other they'd never met because he had died years before they were born.

"Sensei," Tsuki spoke, "the people in the crater, they're Lady Tsunade and Master Jiraiya. She's healing him."

Mirai was blown out of her mind. "_What?!_ That's impossible! Master Jiraiya died a long time ago!"

"Weren't you listening to Shinachiku's transmission?" Bagu questioned. "He said that Taka has three of the Chakra Gems and that one of them can resurrect the dead."

Mirai sweat dropped as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, sorry. Its been such a crazy day that I must've forgotten about that."

"This is strange," Kurenai said, catching everyone's attention.

"What do you mean mom?"

"I was at a meeting with the Seventh and all our friends back in Suna, and there we learned that Master Jiraiya was under Taka's control. If Lady Tsunade is down there healing him then that could mean that she's been brainwashed too."

"But sensei," Bagu said, "if that's the case, then I seriously doubt that any of us would have a chance against one of the Legendary Sannin, let alone _two_ of them."

"You're right...Wait a minute!"

Two figures came leaping into view and then walked their way towards the crater. It appeared to be a middle aged woman with short black hair and wearing a black gi with one long sleeve. The other looked like a little girl with pink hair. Even more strange, out of the woods something came running so fast that it kicked up a huge dust trail as it went. It was some old man in a wheelchair being pushed by a very energetic boy dressed in green. Something must have _seriously_ fired the kid up because he was pushing that old man's wheelchair _way_ too fast! The boy then came to a complete stop so quick and sudden that he fell over several times but then got back up just as fast and saluted like none of it was a big deal in any way whatsoever.

Kurenai did not need the kid's Byakugan to tell her that it was Shizune, Guy, Burandon and Hanami down there, but she did want to know what they were doing. She watched closely as Shizune approached Tsunade, the two exchanged a few words, and then the master and her former pupil shared a hug before they both started healing the old man together.

"Umm...sensei?" Ōkami asked in confusion. "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"We'd better find out," Kurenai reasoned. "Bagu, send an insect down there to listen in on what's going on."

"Hai."

The boy released a single insect to fly down to the crater and listen in what was being said among the six familiar faces in the distance.

* * *

"Lady Tsunade!" Burandon said with a salute. "The mission has been accomplished! Hanami has remained safe and the enemy did not take her!"

"Well done Burandon," said the old woman with the face and the body of a vixen. "But Shizune tells me that Hanami did a lot to ensure her own survival as well."

Burandon blushed a bit in embarrassment, but thankfully Guy was there to wheel himself forward and alleviate the situation. "It is true m'lady. Young Hanami here displayed a feat of incredible strength beyond her years thanks to some private tutelage given to her by her mother, which Sakura in turn learned from you. Nevertheless, young Burandon here displayed terrific sense of duty and heroism out there himself. He made me and his father proud today. The Springtime of Youth is strong in this one!"

Burandon only blushed even deeper at the old man's enthusiastic praise. He even started crying manly tears of appreciation.

"I'm happy to hear that," Tsunade said. "You kids both did great."

Hanami walked forward toward the old man that Tsunade and Shizune were healing. She had seen photos of this man. She'd heard many a story about him, both the flattering ones and the unflattering ones, from her father. In a way, it almost felt like she was meeting member of her family for the first time.

"J-Jiraiya sir?"

The old man turned his head in the direction of the voice. He was greeted by a girl only about seven years old. He had never met her, but his knew her pink hair that was the same as Tsunade's pupil. What struck him most however were her eyes, he'd know them anywhere. They were his godson's eyes...Naruto's eyes.

"You must be Hanami," he said. "Tsunade told me about you, and your brother." The old man put on the most sincere, grandfatherly smile he could muster. "It's an honor to meet you young lady."

Hanami, already overcoming whatever nervousness she may have had moments earlier, smiled back and sat down next to the old man with a huge, happy smile that could melt anybody's heart.

"My daddy told me about you a lot. He said you are a dirty old man that like to flirt and peep on pretty girls all the time."

The Toad Sage's face faulted as a huge sweat drop appeared on his head. Tsunade and Shizune couldn't resist giggling as Jiraiya pouted. 'Naruto! How dare you go about tarnishing my good name after my death! Have you no respect for the legacy of the Toad Mountain Sage?!'

But then Hanami continued. "But he also told me that you are a very good man, a great teacher and one of the greatest ninja's in the whole world. My daddy said you were like daddy to him."

The old man smiled again. "Thank you Hanami."

"Master Jiraiya," Shizune said, "I hate to interrupt, but as soon as you're healed we need you to tell us everything you know about Taka. Whatever Uragi's told you may be helpful in defeating them."

Jiraiya said nothing for a few moments before he started rubbing his head. "Yes...Yes its starting to come back to me now. Just give me some time to think."

"Shizune," Tsunade said, "what do you mean we'll need Jiraiya's information? Is there something I should know?"

Shizune was almost terrified of what she was about to confess, but she had no choice. "M'lady...those Taka ninja that attempted to kill Hanami...they...I'm sorry m'lady..."

"Shizune," the elder woman placed a hand on her former pupil's shoulder for reassurance. "Its alright, whatever it is it can't be that bad."

Shizune swallowed a lump in her throat and finished talking. "...Those Taka ninja destroyed the scroll containing all of the antidote we've made to their chakra-depletion serum."

**_"WHHHHAAAATTTTT!"_**

"Whoa!" Ōkami exclaimed. "Lady Tsunade must be super pissed! I could hear that scream all the way over here!"

"Mom, I've got a bad feeling about this," Mirai said.

"Yeah, so do I."

At that moment, Bagu's insect flew back to their location and landed in the boy's ear. The Aburame clan heir stood there listening intently to the buzzing that the insect was making in his ear, a buzzing that only members of his clan would know how to translate.

In a monotone, emotionless voice so quite that the rest of his team very nearly missed it, Bagu said only one word to himself: "Damn..."

Ōkami wasn't exactly thrilled. "_Damn?_ What do you mean _damn?_ What the hell's going on down there?!"

"What is the matter Bagu?" Tsuki asked in much more polite tone.

"I'm afraid I have good news and bad news."

Kuranai and Mirai shared a looked before the elder Yūhi answered on behave of her team. "Give us the good news first Bagu."

"Very well. The good news is that the control that Uragi and Taka had over Master Jiraiya has now been erased and the Toad Sage is on our side again. He'll be able to help us as soon and Shizune and the Fifth finish healing his injuries."

"That's wonderful," Mirai replied with a sense of hope. "That means that there's a chance to free the Kazekage and anyone else Taka is possessing too."

Kurenai was very pleased to hear about this new development, but as the sole adult in this company she also needed to stay professional and hear the rest of Bagu's report. "What's the bad news?"

Bagu continued: "The bad is that Taka agent's ambushed them back at the hospital and nearly killed Hanami. She was able to free herself, but in the process the ninja destroyed all of the antidote that the Fifth and Shizune had created since we got here."

A dead silence befell everyone. What were they going to do now. They all knew what this meant. There was no way to restore their friend's chakra now.

"Bagu," Kurenai said, "send your insect back out. Tell it to find Lord Seventh and Shinachiku. Let them know what's happened. Wherever they are they need to be informed of this."

"Hai sensei."

With a heavy heart, Bagu whispered a message to his insect before sending it off on its way through the woods outside the village. There was no telling how long it would take, but if Shinachiku and his father and all of their friends were out there somewhere, then they would learn of what happened soon enough.

* * *

By now the group had unlocked all of the adult's chains and they were now free. The kids went over to be reunited once again with their families.

"Shina," Naruto said, "I still can't believe you did that! You mean to tell me that Kakashi and Konohamaru taught you how to improve a Wind Release: Rasengan?"

"Wind and _Fire_ Release: Rasengan," Shinachiku corrected with a tinge of smugness in his voice.

"Son, I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of you. I was three years older than you before I learned how to do that."

"Arigato dad."

Nearby, Sasuke was offering up similar praise to his daughter. "I have to admit that I'm impressed Sarada. To master a change in chakra nature and to invent your own jutsu at your age."

"Arigato dad."

Karin gave her daughter a hug. "I'm proud of you too sweety. You and Shina really saved the day back there."

"Arigato mom."

Sakura was also hugging her son in congratulations. "I knew my little guy would turn out to be something special!"

"Yeah, well, the jutsu still needs a lot of work."

"Well of course dear, you had to rush learning it in such a short amount of time—"

"That's not what I mean mom." The boy whispered in the woman's ear so only she could hear. "The jutsu you saw was just a first step. What I've been working on is something much bigger. But I haven't quite gotten it right and besides, I know from dad's book what it can do to you every time you use it."

Sakura's eyes widened as she gasped in horror at what she feared her son was getting at. "Shina! You can't be serious!"

"I am mom. I was thinking of calling it: "Wind and Fire Release: Scorching Rasenshuriken."

"I don't care what you call it! You know full well what the Rasenshuriken did to your father when he was about your age. As your mother I don't want to see you risk hurting yourself like that just to—"

"I know mom, I know. That's why I didn't use it today. We have too much going on right now to risk me getting put in a hospital room."

Hearing her son say that was already making Sakura feel a lot better. "That's my son." She planted a light kiss on the boy's cheek, much to his embarrassment, and they agreed to leave it at that and keep this their little secret.

There was a stir in the back, one that sounded someone was waking up. The company turned their heads and the saw that Gaara and his brother were there. They both were scratching their heads in pain, like they were waking up from some kind of bad dream.

"Where...Where am I?"

"Father?"

Gaara looked up to see a face he knew all too well. It was the face of his own daughter. "Sunako? What is—?"

The sand master was cut off by a weight that plowed itself onto his chest. Sunako, the usually cold, focused and emotionless Sunako, had leaped into her father's arms to give him an enormous hug. And as out of character as it might have been for him, he did not hesitate to hug her right back.

"Umm...Suna? You're Uncle Kankurō's here too..." The middle child of the Sand Sibling's tried to get the girl's attention, but it was to no avail. "Right...Hey wait? Where's Temari?"

"I'm right here."

Kankurō look to his side to see the sandy blonde haired woman come up to him and hug him in relief that he was all right again. Kankurō, as strange as it was for him, gave in himself and hugged her back.

As the Sand Sibling's all got reacquainted again, Suigetsu and Jūgo were waking up at about the same time. Jūgo seemed to be back to his newfound sense of inner peace once again, but Suigetsu had a headache that felt as big as the Valley of the End.

"Ugh! What the hell happened?"

"You got knock out, _that's_ what happened."

The Swordsman of the Mist looked up to see his old friend and team leader staring down at him. Sasuke had his hand gripping his sword, prepared to cut his teammate down in case he was still under mind control.

"Put it away Sasuke, I'm back to normal again."

"Prove it."

"You're a dick and your wife's a bitch."

Sasuke took his hand off his sword and smirked. "Works for me."

"Thank you for freeing us friends," Jūgo said addressing everyone.

Naruto politely got up from his family and walked over to his old friend. Smiling, he offered up his hand and Gaara accepted by taking it and letting Naruto pull him him back up to his feet.

"It's good to have you back old friend."

"It is good to be back Naruto."

Shino was watching things unfold nearby when he heard a buzzing in his ear. One of his son's insects had landed in his ear and was communicating a message to him. He listened carefully to the insect's message and exclaimed to himself once it was finished. "Damn."

"Damn?" Karui questioned. "Damn what?"

"Naruto? Everyone? I have some good news and bad news."

Tenten, in a moment of irritation after such a long and stressful day, spoke on behalf of everyone. "Give us the bad news first."

"The bad news is that Lady Tsunade and Shizune completed their mission to complete more of the antidote to Taka's serum that is nullifying our chakra."

Sakura smiled in pride. 'You're still amazing Lady Tsunade...'

"I thought you said that was _bad_ news?" Chōji question nervously.

"It is. The antidote was completed, but it seems that all they've managed to produce was then destroyed by Taka agents."

Everybody hung their heads in defeat, and even some others, like Kiba, Shikamaru and Sasuke, cursed out loud that their situation might be permanent.

"So what's the good news then?" Ino questioned doubtfully.

"The good news is that Hanami and the others are all safe and more importantly, Master Jiraiya has been freed of Taka's mind control."

That news instantly perked up Naruto's spirits. He felt like he was on top of the world, like one of this day's major weights had just been lifted off of his shoulders. 'Pervy Sage...you're back..." The Orange Hokage could even feel a tear welling up in the corner of one of his eyes. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see his wife smiling at him. He nodded and smiled back.

"There has to be something else we can do to get our chakra back," Hinata said.

Sakura spoke up in response. "There used to be."

"What do you mean?" Temari asked.

"Before Naruto and I were chased out of the village I had to perform an emergency operation to save a man's life. I used my Delicate Illness Extraction technique to pull the serum itself from the man's blood. I didn't know what is was back then though."

Shikamaru was quick to catch on. "But without your chakra you wouldn't be able to use your technique on any of us, right?" Sakura nodded her head in response.

"That won't be necessary friends."

Everyone was caught off guard by Gaara's voice. Naruto was the one who spoke for them. "What do you mean Gaara?"

"Consider: when Kankurō, Uchiha's companions and myself were captured along with you, we too were injected with Taka's serum. But when the four of us were brainwashed by the Chakra Gem, we all had our chakra restored as well."

Everybody's eyes widened in realization. Kiba shouted aloud, "Hey that's right! But how?!" Akamaru barked while standing next to him.

"It is because Taka already has developed their own antidote to their serum to use in case of emergency. The four of us know where it is and we can lead you to where they are keeping it. Theoretically it should cure all of you of your condition."

A wave of hope washed back over everyone. There was still a chance. There was still hope to get their powers back and use them to help free their village once and for all.

"Shino," Naruto said with a confident and determined smile, "get ready to give a message to that bug there and send in back where it came from. Gaara my friend, tell us everything you know..."

* * *

Well there you have it! Another chapter in the can, and this time we end on a ray of hope for our heroes.

I was pleased to have finally made it to this one. I finally got to showcase the payoff of Shinachiku and Sarada's training to create new jutsu. From early on I loved the idea of a Rasengan on fire, a chance to utilize some of the rarely seen scorching jutsu used in the series, Thus, the Wind and Fire Release: Rasengan was born.

As you may have guessed from that scene between Sinachiku and Sakura near he end, my original plan was far cooler though, the Scorching Rasenshuriken! Think about it, the Rasenshuriken is already an awesome technique, but seeing that technique _on fire?!_ That would look amazing in animation. I was fully intending on including it here for you guys...until I remembered that the jutsu is prone to sporadically dissipating after being formed and, more importantly, it causes celluar damage to both the user as well as the targets. Plus, the jutsu may have annihilated Gaara and Kankurō in the process, and that was obviously not Shinachiku's goal here. I felt it was important to honor the downside of the Rasenshuriken but I concluded that it was one consequence too many to have to worry about in this story. Maybe in future stories I can bring the Rasenshuriken back, but for now I felt this would do fine.

As for the Scorching Chidori...I'm not quite as proud of that one. Its a cool enough attack, but I never did have the same inspiration for Sarada's technique like I did Shinachiku's. So, yeah, her arm get engulfed with both fire and electricity both. Awesome!

This chapter also saw the wrap up of Iruka and Anko's (and Udon and Moegi's) little subplot about protecting the Academy students and ensuring that the archives are kept safe. I felt like this minor side story had gone on long enough and, frankly, it was one less subplot I needed to keep track of. Hope it was satisfying enough for you guys even if there wasn't necessarily a big fight involved...none that we got to see anyway.

I think that's all I have to say for this time. Sorry again for the delay and thank you all for you support.

Until next time, see ya!


	45. Chapter 43--From Better to Worse

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

I apologize again for the latest delay in getting this chapter out. There has been a lot going on in my family lately and, frankly, I was having a bit of writer's block over what else I could do with all of my numerous plot lines. But don't worry, I've taken measures to seriously address that problem, which you'll be seeing in this chapter.

There is a lot going on in this one, so I think it's time I stop rambling on and let all of you enjoy the chapter.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 43: From Better to Worse**

"Hey! Hey!"

Tsunade turned to the sound of the voice yelling at them. "Who is that?"

Shizune squinted her eyes as she focused in on the mass of bodies coming their way. "M'lady, I think its Kurenai and her team. They're heading this way."

"Yosh!" Guy cheered as he pumped his fist in the air. "This is a fortuitous turn of events indeed. Perhaps this is a sign that Kurenai and the children were successful in their phase of the plan?"

"Indeed Guy-sensei!" Burandon chimed in with the same amount of enthusiasm (which, of course, was way too much).

Jiraiya was still on the ground recovering from his injuries and he rolled his eyes at the display of the two green clad ninja. 'Jeez! I guess some things never change.'

As Kurenai and her teams came out from their hiding place they were greeted by the others. Shizune directed them over to the Toad Sage's current resting place but she did urge them to approach with caution.

"Master Jiraiya?"

"Kurenai I presume?" the old man replied. "It is good to see you." He then took notice of the children in her company. "Judging by those pale white eyes and those markings on your faces, I presume you two are the Hyūga-Inuzuka twins I was told about?"

'"H-Hai Master Jiraiya," Tsuki said with her mother's former sense of shyness. "I am Tsuki and this is my brother Ōkami."

The male twin merely waved. "'Sup?"

The old man noticed the other boy among them, one that was wearing sunglasses and whose mouth was concealed by a green jacket. "And you must be Bagu Aburame."

"Greetings Pervy Sage."

A large vein appeared on Jiraiya's forehead. "What did you just call me?!"

"Forgive me master, but that is the way Lord Seventh most often addresses you."

Tsunade and Shizune laughed again; the old man was not amused. 'Naruto, you and I are going to have a talk when this is all over with!"

But the Toad Sage's thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the presence of one more child among them. This one was a girl of noticeably older age and presumably rank. She had long and shaggy black hair and eyes that looked similar to Kurenai's. "You're Asuma's daughter?"

Mirai swallowed a lump in her throat she did not even realize she was holding. "H-Hai sir."

Jiraiya nodded. "I knew your father Mirai, he was a good man."

It was a very simple statement, but it surprisingly did a lot to give the girl some confidence. After the absolutely nightmarish day she was having, being forced to kill her own treacherous teammate no less, it made her feel good about herself to here anything about her father, especially if it was coming from one of the legendary Sannin. "Arigato Master Jiraiya."

"Hey listen," Tsunade interrupted, "I should be just about done healing this big buffoon and when that's over with we need to come up with a plan to get ourselves out of this mess."

"The loss of the antidote your team developed? Yes we know."

"How?" Shizune asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Bagu took the liberty of answering that question. "I sent one of my insects to listen in on your conversation in order to properly access the situation before we took any further action."

"That was very wise of you boy," Jiraiya commended.

"By the way," Kurenai turned her head to Bagu, "Where is your insect now? Has it returned from its mission yet?"

Burandon looked momentarily puzzled. "I thought you said that Bagu's insect already completed it's mission?"

"It had," the Aburame boy clarified. "But after reporting back to us with what it had learned about all of you we then sent it ahead to find Lord Seventh and report to him."

"You mean your little bug knows where my daddy is?" Hanami asked.

"Not initially, but with its size and speed it should take too awfully long for it to track them down." The boy squinted his eyes behind his sunglasses as he was able to make out something flying towards them. "As a matter of fact...I'd say that's it right now."

The other's all turned their heads to were Bagu was looking, but there did not appear to be anything in the sky to take notice of.

"It's so freakin' tiny!" Ōkami complained. "How can you possibly see such a small bug from so far away?"

"We Aburame are taught from childhood to be one with the insect kingdom, one with nature. My eyes can see things most people's cannot...you could too if you were smart enough to try using your Byakugan instead of complaining all the time."

The Hyūga boy blushed red in irritation. "Hey! Take that back you little—!"

"Bagu's right oniichan!" Tsuki proclaimed, her Byakugan already activated while her brother's was not.

The insect flew into range and landed in Bagu's ear. The boy listened intently to the insect's buzzing, taking in all that it had to say. "Fascinating..."

"What's fascinating?" Ōkami questioned.

"It would seem that my insect found Lord Seventh and our parents already. It also seems that they have been freed of their constraints and that the Kazekage and his brother, as well as the teammates of Sarada's parents, have all been freed of Taka's control just like Master Jiraiya has."

"That's wonderful!" Mirai said excitedly.

"Oniichan, mom and dad!" Tsuki hugged her brother in excitement. Ōkami smiled back at her as he returned the hug.

"Mommy and daddy and oniichan are all alright!" Hanami shouted even more excitedly.

"Thank goodness!" Tsunade let out a huge sigh of relief as she finally finished healing Jiraiya's wounds. "Kid, did you insect inform Naruto about the antidote?"

"Yes m'lady," Bagu answered. "Lord Hokage has been informed and the news seems to have let the rest of them down. However..."

"However what?" Kurenai questioned.

"It seems that the Kazekage is going to be leading them to a secret location where Taka is maintaining a supply of their _own_ antidote to their _own_ serum."

Tsunade's eyes widened in shock. Could it really be?! Could there still be hope?! Could all of their loved ones finally get their chakra back after all?!

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Ōkami objected. "If Taka went to all the trouble to develop these serums just to cut off their enemy's access to their chakra, why would they want to go and make an antidote for it?!"

"You fool! Isn't it obvious?!" Jiraiya snapped at the boy as he at last had the opportunity to stand up. "They needed to have an antidote prepared in case one of their own ever got injected with their own serum. Besides which—"

Tsunade connected the dots and finished her lover's sentence for him. "Anyone who was successfully captured and bent to Taka's will through the chakra gem wouldn't be of any use without their chakra abilities available to them. _That_ explains how Gaara and the others were able to use their techniques again after they were enslaved."

Jiraiya smirked at his true love's ever-reliable deductive reasoning. "Precisely."

"Wait!" Hanami shouted, causing everyone else to look at her. "You said Gaara and his brother and my Uncle Sasuke's friends are all back to normal right?"

"Yes..." Bagu answered, not sure where the girl was going with this.

"Well, what about my grandma and grandpa?"

"...My insect told be nothing abut them. I'm sorry."

Hanami hung her head and started to cry prompting Shizune to wrap her arms around her and whisper some reassuring words into her ear. "Its going to be alright sweetie, we'll get them back too, I know it."

Jiraiya looked at the scene and hung his own head in regret as well. 'Minato...Kushina...Its not fair that an old man like myself should be aloud to be free again while both of you remain slaves...Naruto, my boy...what you must be going through...'

"Bagu," Tskui asked, getting the bug-user's attention. "Does your insect know if our Uncle Neji is still a slave too?"

The boy listened as the insect buzzed in his ear again. "It doesn't seem that Neji Hyūga was at the scene. So I have to assume that wherever he is, he is still under Taka's control...I'm sorry."

The twins hung their own heads now is sadness.

"Alright! Enough moping around!" Tsunade yelled to gets everyone's attention. "Standing here and feeling sorry for the one's we love isn't going to bring them back! Naruto and his team are going to find more of that antidote and we have to go and help them."

"HAI!" Everyone shouted at once.

"It just so happens that I was one of the few that Uragi trusted with the location you seek," Jiraiya smirked. "I can lead you all there if you feel you're willing for some sort of a fight."

"You believe that the enemy will attempt an ambush of some kind? Or that the antidote will be kept under heavy guard?" Guy questioned of the Sannin.

Jiraiya turned to the paraplegic ninja and said. "I'd bet my second life on it."

* * *

As the buildings and homes of Konoha were ravaged and some were even burning, a large group of shinobi were gathered together and were on a mission, a mission of dire, desperate importance.

A thirty-something man with auburn hair and the kanji for "love" carved into his head was leading the pack, along with his brother with distinctive purple markings on his face, and two other men, one with pointed, shark-like teeth and an enormous sword, and the other a tall man with orange hair. Following their lead were no less than twenty-two shinobi from multiple different villages, most of whom were suffering from the same affliction that the successful completion of this mission would hopefully cure.

"Gaara," Naruto said, "how much further is it?"

"Not much further. We should be within range of it within the next five minutes."

"The sooner the better!" Ino complained. "The whole helpless damsel thing really isn't becoming a kunoichi like me."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's not becoming of any of us Pig!"

"Shut up Forehead!"

"Ladies!" Sasuke interrupted. "We don't have time for any of your annoying bickering right now! We need to stay focused here!"

"For once I agree with Sasuke," Shikamaru said before turning back to their guides, speaking directly to his elder brother-in-law. "Seriously though, you do know where this place is right? Because having to go around in circles would be very troublesome."

"Just be patient brainiac," Kankurō snapped. "We'll be there before you know it."

"Yeah," Temari butted in. "Let my brothers do their job!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and hung his head. "Yes dear..." 'Man, I love that woman but she can still be such a drag sometimes.'

Shinachiku was currently hanging back with his friends to get the lowdown on what was to come. He leaned into Shikadai's ear. "So what do you think?"

"What do you mean 'What do I think?'"

"I mean what kind of resistance do you think we're going to run into when we get to wherever your uncle's are leading us?"

The Nara clan boy glared in annoyance at his blonde friend. "This might be a surprise to you, but just because my father and I are considered geniuses, that doesn't mean that we can predict the future. I have no idea what's waiting for us, so why don't you cool your jets and lets see where this goes?!"

"I concur with Shikadai," Inojin said. "Our most logical option right now is to remain alert and be prepared for any and all possible opposition."

Chōchō rolled her eyes. "Ever the voice of logic, eh Inojin?"

Shinachiku looked to Sunako and raised his voice to get her attention. "Did you dad happen to tell you where we're going?"

"He did not," was the girl's only response.

"Hey look sharp everyone! We've stopped!" Sarada shouted as she pointed ahead to see that, indeed, the adults had stopped in front of them.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Karin where in the front with Gaara, Kankurō, Suigetsu and Jūgo. What lay before them was a two floor building with wooden paneling and blue roofs and shingles. The company recognized where they were immediately, though they were definitely confused by why they were _here_ of all places.

"The Konoha Orphanage?" Sakura questioned.

"Yeah I know, its the last place you'd expect, which is the entire point," Suigetsu explained as he sipped from his water bottle.

"Taka has a hidden laboratory in each of the five great villages dedicated to developing serums and other weapons for the organization," Jūgo explained. "It is a lot like Orochimaru in a way."

Sakura then got a rather horrifying notion in her mind. "The orphan children? You don't think Taka used them for...?"

"That I don't know," Jūgo stated solemnly.

"I'm not so sure I _want_ to know," said Karin.

Suigetsu couldn't resist rubbing it in. "So says the woman who happily spent years of her life working as one of Orochimaru's lab associates and maintained many of his test subjects, including our friend Jūgo here?"

Karin was not amused. "I don't know what infuriates my more: what Taka may have done to innocent children or how an expert sensor like myself is stuck having to rely on _you_ of all people!"

"Quiet!" Sasuke called out to this team. "Gaara, does this mean that the orphanage staff are linked to the creation of Taka's serum?"

"Only a few of them, double agents planted in the orphanage like they were everywhere else. They were responsible for keeping the basement laboratory a secret from any non-Taka personnel, and I presume the children as well."

"Well after Shina's transmission, I think its safe to assume the kids are all evacuated by now," Naruto surmised. He then turned around to address his team. "Alright then! Everybody stay together and watch your backs. There's no telling who or what we might find in there."

"What about us dad?" Shinachiku said as he and Sarada worked their way to the front. "Do you want us to stay hidden out of sight again?"

Any other time before now, yes, that was exactly what the boy's father would have said. But that was before he saw how much the boy had grown, realized how much he'd accomplished, and how he and his friends had all worked together to do as much good as had been done already this day. It was like he told the boy the day he first left with his godfather, this was _his_ story.

"Weren't you kids listening?" Naruto asked with a smirk. "I said _everyone_ stay together and watch your backs."

Shinachiku smiled with pride. "Thanks dad." He and Sarada went back into the crowd to go tell their friends, while Naruto wrapped his arm around his wife.

"He really has grown up hasn't he?" Sakura asked.

"I think they both have, him and Sarada." Naruto answered. Sasuke heard what his best friend said and nodded.

With no other words said, the team approached the building and readied their battle stances. With most of them still lacking access to their chakra networks, that meant that this mission needed to be mostly taijutsu only. Naruto gave the signal to the others to get ready.

He counted on he fingers. Three...Two...One... With a quick sweep, he threw the door open and yelled "Freeze!"

But the Orange Hokage was relieved (and perhaps a bit disappointed) to find that the room was completely empty. No administrators, no shinobi, no children. No one! All that was there was an empty room with upturned chairs, cupboard doors left hanging open, food spoiling as it was left sitting there on the table, all clear signs that the people in this building evacuated as quickly as possible as soon as Shinachiku's transmission went out over the airwaves.

Naruto stepped into the building slowly, still in his taijutsu stance. He had had his weapons taken away from him when he was captured so without his or Kurama's chakra, that meant that his feet, his fists, and his brain were his only defense.

Raising his hand and gesturing with his fingers, he signaled the others to file in through the door. Sasuke, Sakura and Karin followed after him, along with Shinachiku and Sarada. Gaara, Kiba, Hinata, Akamaru, Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten, Ino, and Sai came in as backup.

"On second thought," Naruto spoke to the rest of his team, "the rest of you guys had better stand guard outside, just in case anyone shows up and tries to get inside."

"What about us," Suigetsu complained. "We're the only other ones besides Gaara who have our chakra."

"Which is exactly why we need you to wait outside and help defend the others. No offense to you three but Gaara is a kage-level shinobi, he'll be enough protection for all of us." As he was about to continue inwards, he stopped again. "Actually, you'd better come too Randamu."

The Missing-nin with the Mouth gasped like an excited teenage girl. "Really?! Is it because you're impressed with my swordsmanship and want me at your side as your bodyguard?"

"Hell no! I just want to be sure to keep an eye on you so you don't cause any trouble!"

His face deflated, Randamu gave a middle finger when Naruto wasn't looking and filed in with the others. But before he did so, he stopped and directed his voice to all of his teammates that were remaining behind. "Hey, nothing personal guys. I'm sure that Naruto doesn't mean to leave all of you out in the cold like this but...well, I don't think the writer knew what to do with so many characters."

Once he had stepped his way through the door, Chōji turned to his wife and daughter. "Anybody have any clue what he's talking about?"

"No idea..." was all Karui could reply back...

* * *

The sixteen ninja stuck together quietly as they searched the orphanage. They opened every door, trekked every hallway, but there was not a single sign of life to be found anywhere.

"This is most perplexing," Lee surmised. "If this is the location of the antidote then where is the enemy to defend it?"

"You won't find anything up here," Gaara explained. "The antidote was developed in a secret laboratory down in the basement."

"Are you sure?" Ino questioned.

"I am certain of it."

Sarada got out one of her kunai and kept turning her head to double check every direction in case an enemy jumped out at them. "Guys, can we hurry this up, this quietness is giving me the creeps."

Shinachiku put his hand in her shoulder to calm her down. "Just relax, we're all in this together."

As the others continued walking, Tenten took a time out to get on one knee and offer up some advise. "Hey, don't hold that so tight, and relax your muscles."

"G-Gomen Tenten-sensei."

"You don't have to call me that, but thank you."

Gaara led them to a bookshelf that lined the far wall. Summoning his sand, he formed a pair of giant stone hands that grabbed the bookshelf and pushed it to the side, revealing a hidden door. "This is the way into the lab."

They opened the door and descended down a hidden staircase.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura whispered, "doesn't any of this feel familiar to you?"

"Yeah...yeah it does! This is a lot like that hidden lab that we found Kabuto hiding in back in the Sound Village."

"Hey!" Sasuke yelled, "Pay attention dobe! We've stopped."

Indeed, they had come down to the bottom of the stairs and found another door. Gaara opened the door with caution and they all filed in, Randamu with his katana's drawn. Inside was an empty laboratory, much like the one they had found under Orochimaru's secret hideout, only this one was much cleaner and more modern. The computers were up to date, the medical equipment sterilized, and then against the far wall was a glass cabinet containing row after row of vials containing different colored fluids. There were vials of red and blue, clearly the serums that Taka had developed, and there were also vials of yellow fluid. But what they were looking for were what was on the bottom rows, several vials of green and orange fluids, the same colors as the antidote that Kabuto had made for them. It was the orange antidote that they had used to cure Hanami.

"Is this the antidote we have come searching for?" Sai questioned as Sakura opened the cabinet and took one of the vials in her hand.

"I think so..." Staring at the orange vial, the gears in the medical ninja's head started turning on overdrive. "Naruto, this is starting to look _really_ suspicious."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked in a stupor.

"I mean think about it! We find Kabuto in that bunker and he agrees to finish creating an antidote for us. We come back and he has it ready and its the exact same color as what Taka has themselves. Look!" she pointed to the yellow vials. "He even told us that he created it using a yellow colored reagent too, and I'm thinking that's exactly what these are here!"

"You're suggesting that Kabuto might have somehow aided in developing Taka's antidote in the first place?" Shikamaru asked.

"Maybe...Or maybe he created the serum itself?"

Naruto shook his head. "But Kabuto told us that he wasn't working for Taka."

"He could have been lying," Karin reasoned. "That man has always been full of dirty secrets, just like his master."

"Whatever the case," Sasuke putted in to stop this conversation, "we don't have time to ponder this right now. Lets just get the antidote we need and get the hell out of here."

Tenten remembered something as well that he decided to bring up. "Hey! When we entered the building I saw a cabinet of spare ninja weapons being held under lock and key. If we can break the lock then we can take those weapons for ourselves to use later."

The others nodded in agreement as Shinachiku threw his mother a spare sealing scroll he was keeping in his backpack. Sakura quickly set to work gathering all the orange and green antidote she could, plus a bunch of syringes she would need to inject everyone. She then signaled the girl over so she could seal the scroll.

But at that moment, Akamaru started barking at the door they'd come in from. Randamu twirled his blades before getting himself into a fighting stance.

"What is it? What's the matter boy?" Kiba asked his partner.

Sarada quickly focused herself and ran through the correct hand signs. The prize they'd come for was sealed away safely. Now they just needed to get it back to the others.

"You're not going anywhere," a voice stated flatly as a figure walked in through the door.

Everyone's eyes widened in terror at who their visitor was, worst of all Hinata. Tears of agony threatening to fall. "Neji..."

The formally deceased Hyūga clan prodigy stepped out of the shadows and stared down his former friends. "Lord Uragi had given me orders to guard this serum with my life. None of you are leaving here."

Looking at Hinata, Naruto pitied her and he turned back to plead with his old friend. "Neji, listen to me, you know you don't want to do this. What Taka did to you, this isn't who you are. Its that damn blue chakra gem messing with your head! You're strong Neji! You can break free of this!"

"You're wrong. I owe Taka my life. It was the Soul Gem that restored me from death at the hands of the Ten-Tails. It was Taka who gave my life new purpose. It is to them my loyalties lie now."

"Neji, my old friend," Lee spoke up, "please, there is no reason for us to be enemies. Guy-sensei would not want to see what Taka has turned you into."

"Neji..." Tenten added with traces of tears in her eyes, "please don't do this."

"There is no _us_ anymore," he flatly told his former friends. "The Neji Hyūga you once knew is truly dead."

"Is he?"

The room cleared at the sound of the voice. Hinata had dried her tears and slowly walked up to her cousin. Kiba tried reaching out to her to stop her, but she merely brushed his hand the side. Neji remained in a battle stance, he would not give in to any treachery.

"Neji," Hinata aid as she came up to him, "listen to them. This isn't you. The Neji I know would never allow himself to be used by this."

"You're wrong. This is my destiny."

"No! You have to power to make your own destiny! You learned that long ago!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"We grew up together. We trained together. When we fought in the Chūnin Exams, when you fought Naruto, all your missions with Lee and Tenten. That day you died to protect me...Doesn't any of that matter to you at all?"

"It...it does not. I have no time for any of this nonsense."

"Look inside yourself. You know who you really are." She gently reached her hand up and cupped her cousin's cheek. "Please Neji, I love you..."

There were traces of sanity coming through. The blue light was beginning to dimmer within the young man's eyes. The proud and accomplished shinobi who never let his guard down nevertheless found his arms falling to the side.

'Perfect.'

This was the opening that Hinata was waiting for. With lightning speed, she jabbed her cousin in one of his soft spots, causing him to groan in pain and curse himself for allowing himself to be taken advantage of. But he barely had any time to process anything before she unleashed a fierce and powerful karate chop to the back of his neck, enough force to instantly knock him out cold.

Sighing aloud to herself, Hinata turned back to her friends and was all business. "Somebody needs to bind him in case he's still being controlled when he wakes up. In the meantime lets all hurry and take the antidote."

Everybody, absolutely everybody there was staring utterly gobsmacked at how easily she had fooled not only Neji but the rest of them. She had just taken down her own cousin, someone who decades earlier had very nearly _killed_ her in the Chūnin Exams, with virtually no effort.

"H-H-Hinata?!" Naruto stuttered out slack jawed. "Wh-Why did you—?!"

"Naruto, we didn't have time for a negotiation or a fight. I saw it work on Gaara and the others so hopefully its enough to work on Neji too. Now come on! We need to get this done soon if we're going to do our part to save our home."

Sasuke actually smirked. "Well, can't argue with that logic."

As the others started getting to work binding Neji (while Naruto was still getting over his surprise), Shinachiku smiled in amazement. 'Wow...sometimes I forget just how cool Aunt Hinata can really be sometimes...'

* * *

"What are you planning to do with us?"

Chōjūrō's question was not answered immediately. Uragi merely stood there glaring down at the Mizukage, him and both of his allies and their bodyguards. Darui and Kurotsuchi were struggling to break free of his constraints.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out something they all recognized. "Remember this?"

The kages stared at the object in their traitorous host's hands. It was the scroll, the one that he had showed them during the meeting. The scroll that contained a map to the remaining chakra gems.

"You know," Uragi said, "when I ordered my men to turn this over to Uzumaki, I did so because I thought one kage alone would have the power to release the seal. But if seems he could not. If one kage, a jinchūriki no less, isn't powerful enough to break the seal, then who is?"

The Taka leader smirked before he continued. "But thank goodness for the Kage Summit. I figured if one kage wasn't strong enough, perhaps all of them together can do it."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Darui yelled. "You really think that _any_ of us would agree to help you?! You'll just kill all of us once you get what you want, just like you tried with Naruto!"

"Besides **idiot!**" Kurotsuchi added, "Your men put this damn serum in our blood. How do you expect us to unseal the scroll without our chakra?"

Smirking, Uragi snapped his fingers to get the attention of his two servants whom he had ordered to stand watch over the prisoners. Kushina reached into her vest and pulled out six vials containing an orange fluid, which she promptly handled over to her master.

"This here is the antidote to your current condition. One inoculation of this and your chakra network will be restored to perfect working order."

Darui wasn't one to be fooled so easily. "At what cost?"

"Your complete and total loyalty to Taka and its cause. We can remake this world together, we can bring an end to the cycle of hatred by tearing down the shinobi system and building a utopia in its place."

"You mean under Taka's will?" Chōjūrō protested. "A world where magic gems ensure world order because nobody has free will except the ones holding them. That not order! That's absolute imperialism!"

"Your so-called order is a joke," Kurotsuchi shouted.

"None of us will ever join you. The Shinobi Alliance will not fall!" Durai proclaimed.

Uragi stared at them for three solid seconds before sighing and shaking his head. "I'd really hoped that for once I wouldn't have to resort to this..." He reached into his pocket and once again pulled out a familiar glowing blue gem. "...But you all need to understand that for the sake of this world's survival, Taka always get what it wants, whatever it takes...

* * *

It was about twenty or so minutes later, and Neji Hyūga was finally starting to wake up after the blow to the neck he'd received from his own cousin. Slowly regaining consciousness, Neji allowed his eyes to come into focus as he took in his surroundings. He was laying on the floor of the ground level of the orphanage, near the entrance. Somebody had to have moved him after Hinata knocked him out.

Looking to the side, he could make out his former friends lining up to seek aid from Sakura, who one-by-one was giving each of them a shot of an orange fluid. It took him a moment to regain his memories and remember that this was the antidote to Taka's serum, the antidote for which Uragi had brainwashed him so he would protect it.

He noticed something else too...his arms and legs were bound up. 'Excellent strategy: demobilize me while I'm unconscious until they are certain I am no longer a threat.'

"Neji!"

The Hyūga clan member snapped his neck in the direction of the voice he knew all too well. "Lady Hinata, I—_UFH!_"

Poor Neji was cut off when the bluenette collided herself into his chest, quick to wrap her arms around his tied up body. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she let all of her joy out. "Neji...I'm so happy you're here. I missed you so much..."

"I...I missed you as well...Hinata," he responded with a clear tinge of awkwardness.

"Neji, I'm sorry, I sorry I had to deceive you. Please forgive—"

"There is nothing to forgive, you did exactly the right thing." He actually blushed at what he said next. "You...You have become a strong and gifted ninja Hinata."

She wiped the tears from her face as she let go of him and smiled. "Arigato Neji-san."

"NEJI!"

The poor young man had even less time to react that he did with his cousin as his old teammate practically bolted over to his old friend and wrapped in a practically life suffocating hug. "Friend Neji! Words cannot describe the overwhelming surge of youth I feel now that you have returned to us!"

"Y-Yes, it is good to see you too Lee! You can let go of me now!"

Lee did as he was asked and bowed as he backed off. When he moved it revealed Tenten was standing behind him. She looked like she was seeing a ghost, and she really wasn't sure how she was supposed to react. "N-Neji? Are you...Are you really back?"

"Yes Tenten, I am back."

She could tell in his eyes, those pale white eyes, that it was all true. With a big, wide smile blossoming her face, she dashed over to her old friend and gave him his third hug in a row. "We've all missed you so much."

"Arigato Tenten." But as soon as she let go of him, the Hyūga clan Jōnin felt that he needed to address the elephant in the room. "Listen friends, I am pleased to finally be back, but can someone please untie me now?"

"You heard the man, release him."

Neji turned his head in the direction of the voice he recognized. As some of his old friends cut his bonds allowing him to stand, he stood face to face with the smiling, adult form of the very man who's mantra changed his life forever. He immediately bowed in respect, and in apology. "Lord Hokage."

Naruto bowed back. "Neji Hyūga."

There was a short pause before Naruto let out a happy laugh and embarrassed his old friend. "Its so good to have you back man."

"Thank you." They parted and Neji was able to see all of the rest of his former friends looking back at him. He bowed to all of them. "My friends, please forgive my treachery. Taka had disturbed me from my eternal rest and turned my mind against you all. There is no way to make up for the terrible things I've done. I can only beg your forgiveness."

Naruto ordered him to raise his head as he spoke for the rest of them. "There is nothing to forgive old friend. We're just glad to have you back."

Happily, Neji used the time to get himself reacquainted with his old friends. He even got to meet their children first hand.

"So Mr. Hyūga sir," Shinachiku said, "my Aunt Hinata told me that you were quite a powerful ninja up until the war?"

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Wait, _Aunt_ Hinata? But aren't you Naruto's son?" After the blonde nodded his head, he turned back to his cousin. "I thought you and Naruto were—?"

Hinata blushed deep red in embarrassment, while Naruto started sweating and tugging his collar. He suddenly felt like he was going to have a heart attack. 'Don't let him get mad! Don't let him get mad!'

Yep! This could get _really_ awkward, _really_ fast!

...Or at lest it _would_ have, had there not been a sudden knock on the wooden paneling of the orphanage at the very moment. "Hello? Anybody here?"

'Oh thank God!' was all Naruto's mind as could think as he heard Shizune's voice coming from the doorway. He and the others watched as she, Tsunade, Kurenai, Mirai, Guy, Burandon, Ōkami, Tsuki and Bagu filed in. The kids quickly went back to regroup with their families.

And then Naruto and Sakura saw their little girl peak out from behind Shizune's legs. Hanami excitedly ran into her father's arms as he lifted her in the air for a huge hug.

"I missed you daddy!"

"I missed you too sweetheart."

Sakura was quick to come over and share in the family hug, and Shinachiku smiled as he stood next to them.

"Sweetie," Sakura said, "I'm so happy you're not hurt."

"I'm okay mommy. I used what you taught me to beat up the bad guys that tried to hurt me."

The pink haired woman smirked in pride. "That's my girl!"

Father and son were both confused, with the elder blonde speaking for the both of them. "What are you two talking about?"

Giggling, Sakura decided now was as good a time as any to let her two boys in on her and Hanami's little secret. "Honey, Shina-sweetie, I've been giving our little girl some private lessons when neither of you were looking. I taught her how to control her chakra to amplify her strength just like me and Lady Tsunade."

**"WHAT?!"** Both father and son yelled in shock at the top of their lungs.

"You should be proud of her Naruto. Shizune tells me she saw it with her own eyes. That girl's going to become quite a powerful kunoichi one day."

Time stood still for the blonde Hokage. He'd know that voice anywhere. He was almost in tears when he turned to the doorway and saw _him_ standing there.

"Jiraiya-sensei...?"

The old man smiled. "Please kid, call me Pervy Sage."

That did it. That quip was the straw that broke the camel's back. Naruto set his daughter down and then he rushed over to the door and collided with his old master in an emotional, manly hug. His masculinity be damned, he was not able to stop the tears from flowing as he held onto the old man.

"I never thought I'd see you again..."

"I know kid, I missed you too."

When the two separated, Jiraiya couldn't help but notice Sakura nearby speaking with Tsunade and Shizune. "Hey Naruto, couldn't help but notice your wife over there. Way to go kid!"

"Excuse me?"

The old pervert started nudging his godson in the ribs while wagging his eyebrows suggestively. "I'm just saying that Sakura sure has grown into quite an attractive dame! And rumor has you two have had some pretty wild night eh! You've done your old master proud son! ...Hey! I just got a great idea! Now that I'm back, I can make history as the first author to write and publish a new book _after_ death! You and Sakura's first time would sure make for some incredible research— **OW!**"

Naruto furiously punched the old man in the gut as he started yelling at him. "What the hell's the matter with you! You haven't changed one bit you dirty old geezer! You talk about my wife like that again, I'll kick your ass!"

"Yeah!" Randamu added as he turned towards the 'Fourth Wall. "Come on writers! It's bad enough that I'm not getting anything to do this time, but now I'm not even the perverted comic relief anymore! What the hell!"

"Dad?" What's going on?"

"OH! Nothing! Don't even worry about it son! Just us grown ups talking is all."

"So," the old man said as he got over his former student's punch, "you must be Shinachiku.

The boy bowed, "Hai sir. And you must be Master Jiraiya. It is a honor to meet you sir."

"The honor is mine kid."

The moment was broken up when there was a sudden green flash that shined through the doorway.

"What the heck was that?" Ōkami said.

Shinachiku narrowed his eyes. "I think I know."

As the others filed outside, Shinachiku's theory was proven correct. Uragi had anticipated that Gaara and the others would lead them here and so he used the Space Gem to teleport himself, Minato and Kushina to confront them at the orphanage. He also had six more allies with him as well...

Indeed, the three kages—Darui, Chōjūrō and Kurotsuchi—were standing there at Uragi's side along with their three bodyguards. There was a tint of blue glowing in each of their eyes, tipping Naruto and company off immediately to what must have happened.

"Uragi you bastard! You're controlling the kages now!"

"Reluctantly yes, only for as long as it takes to get all of you to open this." He pulled out the scroll. "You do remember this, don't you Uzumaki?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "Where'd you get that?"

"How do you think? I had my men swipe it off of you when Hyūga captured you back in Suna..." He glanced over at his former puppet. "...Whom I can already tell has been having second thoughts about where his loyalties lie."

Shinachiku just then realized something he should have told his father hours ago. "Dad! We listened in on the Kage Summit meeting. The scroll contains a map to the remaining chakra gems."

"What?!"

"I didn't think I needed you after you failed me the first time Uzumaki," the Taka leader explained. "But now I fear I need to be more rational about things."

Into his pocket he reached, that familiar blue glow leaking out from between his fingers as he held the Mind Stone up before him. "Naruto, Gaara, I'm afraid Taka is done with you after all...**AAAGGHHH!**"

Uragi never got the chance to use the gem on the two kages. Why? Because a certain ninken took the initiative and bite the old man on his arm. "Damn dog!"

Kiba punched his fist in the air in pride. "Way to go Akamaru!"

The pain of the dog's bite caused Uragi to drop the gem, which Akamaru was quick to pick up with his teeth and fling it at the others. Shinachiku quickly dove into the air and caught the gem in his hands.

"Kages! Get that gem back!"

The three of them poised themselves for a fight, Darui and Omoi, and Chōjūrō and his bodyguard brandishing their swords while the others focused their chakra to prepare their most powerful techniques.

But the young blonde focused his mind and poured his will into the gem he held in his hand. "Stop!"

The six of them did exactly that. The all froze in their place unable to move.

Uragi was furious! "What's the matter with you! Do as Taka commands!"

"Lord Raikage...Lord Mizukage...Lord Tsuchikage...break free of him. You and your friends...You are free."

The others watched as Shinachiku focused his will through the Mind Gem to banish its influence from their minds. A number of them looked like they were awaking from a dream.

"Don't listen to him!" the old man protested. "Your loyalty is to Taka! To its world order!"

"No! Your loyalty is to yourselves! To your people! Break free of him! Fight!"

"I'll teach you to defy Taka boy!" Uragi made the proper hand signs and changed his chakra nature to form a bolt of electric energy aimed straight at the boy's heart. "LIGHTNING STYLE: THUNDER SPEAR!"

Time halted as the boy's family and friends saw the beam of electric energy about to strike the young man...Or rather it _would_ have, had the bolt of lightning not been blocked by Darui's sword.

"WHAT?!"

"You're control over us is ended traitor." He slashed at the old man, who was just barely able to dodge the swipe of the Raikage's blade by jumping back towards Minato and Kushina.

The three kages stepped away from their "master" and instead stood beside their friends Naruto and Gaara, their weapons drawn and their minds their own once again.

"Umm...Guys? Are all of you...Y'know...?"

Kurotsuchi rolled her eyes. "Yes Naruto, we're back to ourselves again."

"And today we fight beside all of you," Chōjūrō added, before looking down towards his ally's son. "We thank you young man for freeing us."

Standing up, Shinachiku bowed in respect. "Domo arigato Lord Mizukage, but right now I still have two more people that need to be set free."

With that, he pointed the glowing blue gem in the direction of his grandparents, focusing his mind into the enchanted relic so he might free them as he did the kages...

_CLING!_

Shinachiku never got the opportunity. Minato had thrown a kunai directly at the boy's hand, causing him to drop the gem to the forest floor. The Yellow Flash made a dash to reclaim the gem with his legendary speed, before Kakashi made a last minute move to block his old master. The two of them engaged in a desperate taijutsu match as the son of the White Fang blocked and parried the Fourth Hokage's attacks, using his Lightning Blade to counter Minato's Rasengan.

"Shinachiku! Get the gem!"

Kakashi's plea snapped the boy back to reality and he made a move for the blue relic. He was barely able to tuck it into his pocket before Kushina came slashing at him with one of her kunai...which was blocked by one of Konohamaru's own blades.

"I've got this Shina! Use the gem to snap them out of it!"

"Hai Sensei!"

Shinachiku closed his eyes to focus as he reached back into his pocket to pull the Mind Gem back out...But then something terrible happened.

During Konohamaru's duel with Kushina, the Uzumaki woman made a near fatal slash at the Sarutobi male that cut into part of his vest, opening one of it pouches and allowing a small box to fall out of the Jōnin's pocket. The box landed on the ground and the top came off revealing what was concealed within...a glowing gem with an intoxicating crimson light.

The power it radiated. The power to wipe out a whole village. The power to change the world. The power of a god. _That_ familiar, intoxicating euphoria was what washed over everyone when the Power Gem was freed from its secret hiding place.

'Damn!' Konohamaru cursed within his mind. He and Kakashi had taken it upon themselves to take turns holding onto it so they could hide it from Uragi and from Taka. But there were two others from whom it was far more important that it remain hidden from.

Kakashi, instantly recognizing the red light, feared the worst. 'Please no...'

Shinachiku and Sarada stared at the relic. Red reflected in each of their eyes. Neither one of them could look away from it. Their lust, their desire, their addiction to its power that had so totally consumed each of them over the last few days, all of it came back in full force just from one look at the object of their obsession.

They each took a step towards it.

"Shina! Don't!" Sakura yelled as she grabbed her son's arm.

"Sarada! Please!" Karin did the same.

Neither child complied. They growled at each of their mother's like a couple of wild animals as they ruthlessly shook them off. They both ran for the gem as it lay on the ground.

But neither made a move. Both children, both friends, glared at the other with hate. The glow of red only intensified as each of them got out their kunai.

Shinachiku pointing his weapon straight at the girl's head. "Its **mine!**"

"NO!" Sarada yelled back as she pointed her own weapon. "Its **mine!** You will **not** take it from me!"

"You touch it and I'll **kill** you Sarada!"

For Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Karin, this was their worst nightmare brought to life. That damned gem, that **thing**, it was turning their children into a couple of savage, power-hungry monsters out for each other's blood! Four many of their friends, it was a sudden and alarming turning events. For the newest among them, like the kages, it was a totally perplexing shift that left them shocked and confused...

...But for Uragi, all he could see was opportunity. 'Well I'll be damned. The Power Gem. _Finally!_ The fourth of the chakra gems has been found! I can feel its power! Its incredible! ...Look at those two. Look how desperate for the power they both are...Hmmm...This could work to our advantage.'

After everything he had done this day, including using the Space Gem to teleport himself twice, Uragi's chakra was running dangerously low. 'Its time I use a technique that the master taught me.'

Reaching out his hand, he grabbed hold of Chōjūrō's bodyguard, who screamed in agony as every single ounce of chakra and life force in his body was drained and absorbed into Uragi himself. While the others gazed on in horror and the kids were too busy staring each other down to notice, Chōjūrō immediately leaped in to save his friend but was backed away by Minato.

By the time Uragi was finished, all that was left of Chōjūrō's body guard was a dried up, shriveled husk of bone and rotted flesh, which promptly turned to dust when it hit the ground.

"Damn!" Randamu cursed. "I've heard of people falling to pieces but that's just ridiculous!"

Randamu paid no mind to any of their reactions as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar green object. "Children? Do you want the gem? Yes? Good! Then why don't you fight for it some place more appropriate?"

In a flash of emerald light, both Shinachiku and Sarada, and the Power Gem, were all gone from sight.

**"Shina!"** Naruto and Sakura screamed.

**"Sarada!"** Sasuke and Karin screamed.

**"Oniichan!"** Hanami cried.

"Uragi!" Sasuke called out in fury. "Where the hell did you send those kids?"

Uragi chuckled arrogantly. "Uzumaki, Uchiha, your children were poised to duel each other to the death. So I sent them away to the one place where your clans are always meant to destroy each other."

The former Team Seven's eyes widened in horror. They all knew exactly what that meant, and the single thought running through Naruto's mind spoke for all of them: 'Please God no...'

* * *

Many, many miles away from Konoha, on the border that separated the Land of Fire from the Land of Sound, an emerald flash of light appeared and quickly disappeared. When it had passed, what it left behind was a blonde haired boy and a raven-haired girl with rimmed glasses. Each of them seemed perplexed at where they were.

...But then they saw the glowing red chakra gem that lay resting on the ground between them and after that, neither of them could care less about where they were. All that mattered was power...and hate.

* * *

Their children were gone, sent away to the Valley of the End, the absolute last place on Earth where they ever wanted to see their family ever return to again. A place that held nothing but memories of pain and shame for both of them...And now, because of forces outside their control, their children would now relive Naruto and Sasuke's nightmares all over again.

Minato stepped forth, his weapon drawn, and Kushina stood beside him. They glared at their enemy with cold, emotionless eyes.

The Mind Gem was gone with Shinachiku, and the boy's own mind was now too consumed with greed and hate to release them, even if he were here to use it at all. Only their own will could free either of them from their enslavement now.

"Everyone," Naruto spoke up to his entire company; his friends, their children, his elders, the kages, everyone. "Get of out here. Your chakra has been restored now, go use it where its needed most. Go back to the village and finish fighting for our home."

"What?!" Tsunade protested. "Now see here young man! None of us are going to just leave you like this now!"

"With all do respect Granny, _yes, you are!_ I don't want anybody else getting in the way of this!"

Shizune tried to protest, "But Naruto—?"

"No!" With a heavy heart, Naruto pointed directly at his own father. "This is between him and me."

Hanami tried to protest next, "But daddy?"

"Listen to your father dear," Jiraiya told the girl with a deeply heavy heart. It pained him, even worse than death, to admit to what he knew was about to happen, but he knew in his soul that this was how it had to be. "I'm sorry Hanami, but this is Naruto's fight, no one else's."

"Ino, Sai," Sakura said to her best friend and her husband, "promise me that you'll look after my daughter will you? I'm staying."

"What?!" Ino yelled in shock. "Sakura! You can't be serious!"

The Slug Queen's apprentice put on her battle gloves and stared with remorseful determination at her opponent...Kushina, her own mother in law. "Yes, I am serious."

"Naruto, Sakura," Sai attempted to protest, "I strongly advise against this. Your opponents are a former Hokage and his former jinchūriki wife."

"Sai's right Naruto! This is insane!" Shikamaru agreed. "You're both going to need backup on this one!"

"They're getting it." Sasuke stepped up to stand beside both of his old friends. "I'm not leaving either."

"Sasuke?!"

"Forgive me Karin, but your place is with the others. Your sensory abilities will be far more useful in defending the village than they will be here with us."

Karin opened her mouth to counter, before she folded her arms in a huff. "Sometimes I hate it when you make sense!"

"Suigetsu! Jūgo!" the Uchiha called out getting the attention of his teammates. "Go with Karin and the others. If I found out anything happened to my wife I'm holding both of you responsible."

"Yeah, yeah! We got it!" Suigetsu brushed off his leader's threat. "Come on Jūgo, lets get out of here."

"May fate be with you my friend, "Jūgo replied as he took Karin by the hand.

But the redhead shook herself free of the tall ninja's grip and ran back to her husband, grabbing his face and she kissed him right on the lips. "You'd damn well better come back to me, you hear?"

"I will."

As Sasuke's team started heading back, Darui and the other two kage's shared a look amongst themselves in silent conversation over whether this was the right thing to do. Gaara was the one who assured them it was. So, as one unit, they and their allies started walking back.

'Good luck my friends,' Gaara thought to himself as he walked with Kankurō and Sunako at his side.

"So that's it?" Temari protested. "We just leave them here and start heading back?"

Shikamaru sighed out loud before he answered his wife. "Its so troublesome, but you know Naruto. Once this idiot makes up his mind, no one can make him change it."

"Well I guess that's it then," Chōji added. "Formation Ino-Shika-Cho is needed else where. Good luck you guys."

"I think we'd better get going also," Shino reasoned.

"Aw man!" Kiba complained. "Why is it that every time something huge goes down it **always** come down to those three?!"

'Naruto, be safe...' Hinata said inside of her mind.

'Hang in there Forehead,' Ino thought. 'And don't worry, we'll take good care of Hanami.'

'I wish you all the best of luck my friends,' Sai told himself with a sincere smile.

"May the Springtime of Youth bring you all to victory good friends!" Lee saluted.

"We'll all be waiting for you back home," Tenten affirmed.

'Naruto,' Neji thought to himself, 'Thank you for everything, and good luck to you...my Hokage.'

'You've made me proud Sakura,' Tsunade told herself.

'Good luck kid,' Jiraiya told himself.

'Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke...' Kakashi said to himself within his mind, 'I could not have asked for a more exceptional team of students. Make me proud today. Save us all again, one more time.'

With that, all of their friends said their goodbyes and they escorted their children back to the village to finish fighting for their home. But just before they were out of sight, Hanami turned her head back to see her family one last time. 'Mommy...Daddy...Oniichan...'

A sarcastic clapping sound could be heard as the three Leaf ninja glared down at old man Uragi. "Well, that certainly was a touching farewell. Touching, but foolish. Uzumaki, do you honestly believe that stopping us here will change anything? Taka has eyes and ears everywhere. Even if I fall today, others will carry on our vision for this world."

"Then we'll all unite together and defeat them just like we will you!" Naruto declared defiantly.

"You'll have to get through _them_ first." Minato and Kushina stepped forward and their master's statement.

"Dad...Mom..." Naruto began. "Please...You know you don't have to do this."

Neither one of them said anything to even acknowledge their son.

"Kushina," Sakura added. "You don't know me, but I know you. I know your story. You're a good person, your an amazing woman! Please don't do this!"

"Dad! People are dying back in the village. We have to stop them. Please listen to me!"

Minato said nothing as he charged forward, three-pronged kunai in hand.

Naruto sighed, a long, soggy tear running down his face, as time seemed to slow down around him and he got out his own kunai to blocked the oncoming attack.

And with that loud, echoing clang of cold steel, the battle between father and son had begun...

* * *

As her husband and his father fought to the death around her, Sakura pleaded with the amazing woman standing before her now, a woman she admired and had wanted to meet ever since she first learned her story many years ago.

"Kushina...please... Please don't make me do this..."

The red-haired woman hesitated for only a moment before she threw one of her kunai directly at Sakura's head. With regret, she ducked her head out of the way of the weapon with only a split second to spare. Kushina charged at her with an animalistic fury, and Sakura felt tears threatening to fall as she threw her first punch at her opponent.

'None of this should have happened...'

* * *

Sasuke drew his sword. "It seems that just leaves you and me."

Uragi folded his arms. "Arrogant as ever I see. What makes you so certain you'll fair any better than your teammates?"

"Because unlike them..." Sasuke's blade immediately started sparking with an electrical current, "...I have no reason to hold back. Now, are we going spend all day talking?" With the energy of the Chidori still running the width of the blade, the Uchiha warrior pointed it directly in front of his opponent. "Or are we going to fight?"

* * *

In the Valley of the End, two friends stared into each other's eyes in blood red fury. The Power Gem lay there at their feet. Its glow was warping their minds, consuming them both with its power...But they did not care.

There were no words, no apologies, no warnings, nothing. There was only cold, brutal silence. They both knew that there was only one way either of them would get to taste the power they sought.

Time stood still around them. There was not a bird in the sky nor anything else to disturb them or the ruined remains of the dueling statues of their ancestors, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

For what felt like an eternity the children stood facing each other. There eyes, once filled with love, happiness and friendship, now filled only with anger and lust for power.

A single gust of wind and a crack of a nearby rock, that was all it took...Both of them screamed in rage and they charged one another, their fists colliding to begin their battle...

...

...How did it come to this?...

* * *

Oh snap! This is it folks! The home stretch is upon us!

Seriously though, this cliffhanger is something I have been working to get us to for a long time now, and even now its somewhat hard to believe that I made it. So much of this story was come up with on the fly and took shape as I was writing it, but these three fights were something I was actively looking forward to do for a while now: Naruto vs. Minato! Sakura vs. Kushina! Shinachiku vs. Sarada!

I'm going to leave a door open for all of you. If you have any ideas for things you would like to see in these fights (plus the Sasuke vs. Uragi fight that ended up happening too), then by all means, please either leave a comment in the review section or send me a private message. We've got a son's duel to free his father, a woman's duel to overcome her mother-in-law, and two best friends (and possibly more) now driven mad with power from the influence of the Power Gem. Lets see if we can figure out what happens next.

There was a lot of payoff of previously established elements in here. Obviously we are getting the big showdown with Minato and Kushina next time, but we also brought back the Power Gem and both of the kid's obsession with it. Naruto also thought to himself way back in Chapter 14 about how he hoped that no one from either his or Sasuke's clan ever had to face each other in that place again, like he and Sasuke did (twice) and Hashirama and Madara before them. That line was intentionally written way back then as a set up for this confrontation here.

Another reason why I am happy to have finally made it to this point is because, honestly, I feel like I cheated my readers out of not one, but two fight scenes in this chapter. First I tricked you into thinking that Neji was going be taken out in a big fight scene, but instead Hinata plays her little deception and takes him out really simply (I'm actually proud to that one, personally). Then later, I suggest that now the team is going to have to fight off the mind controlled kages, and then Shinachiku just uses the Mind Gem to break them out of Taka's control. I originally did have fights scenes in mind for these characters, but as I was writing it just didn't flow right, so instead I pulled a bait-and-switch. But the beauty of it is that, while those fights were ultimately fake outs, we end the chapter on the promise of the REAL fights next time.

I also want to say that, for those of you who have read the story up until now, especially if you have read my Mother's Day and Father's Day one shots, then hopefully the duels between Naruto and Minato and Sakura and Kushina will have some emotional resonance...like the battle between the kids.

As you probably recognized as of late, I've accumulated A LOT of characters by this point and as the story kept going it became a real challenge to manage all of them properly. For these climactic showdowns, I knew I NEEDED to get the former Team 7 alone with Uragi and his remaining two slaves. I sent the rest of the cast back into the village to aid in the fight against Taka, so they will definitely be staying busy for the rest of the story. And don't worry, we'll likely keep checking back in on them from time to time too.

I was also relieved to finally be finished with the story line of all the adults not having their chakra anymore. Now they can get back in the game again and start kicking butt!

I dropped a couple of possible hints at the future as well. When they went into the orphanage I had the character's question the similarity with what they were seeing and what had happened with Kabuto earlier in the story. Now, this other secret lab was inside the orphanage, and Kabuto's not always the most honest snake in the grass all the time. So...I don't know? Is there more going on here than we know? It this all a coincidence? What do _you_ think?

We also finally got a taste of some of Uragi's own powers. To ensure he had enough power to used the Space Gem for the third time that day, I gave him the ability to absorb other people's chakra, a technique he learned from his 'master'...Hmmm... And have a few other ideas for Uragi left to come, so stay tuned!

One very, very minor reference I couldn't resist throwing in for this chapter was as Naruto was sending his friends back into the village, Kiba questions why it is that, every time something really important goes down, it always comes down to Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura to be at the center of everything. That was a somewhat inspired by a similar joke in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" when Minerva McGonagall questions the same thing of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Frankly, I think it's a worthy observation to make in both franchises, and its not like I'm the first person to make a connection between Naruto and Harry Potter, right?

At the very end, Shinachiku and Sarada's battle begins with a gust of wind and a cracking rock. This was a direct callback to the very beginning of the first battle between Goku and Vegeta in "Dragon Ball Z."

One last thing, I know I'm not a NaruHina shipper, but even I feel bad for Naruto when Neji realizes that, in this universe, his friend **didn't** get married to his cousin. That _can't_ be a comfortable moment! LOL!

I think that's all I have for this time. Again, that you all so much for you support and your patience guys. Until next time, see ya!


	46. Chapter 44--Bonds

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Sorry again for the long wait, but things came up in my personal life again. I also really had to think hard about this chapter because there were some very specific story beats I wanted to hit. I hope you all enjoy the chapter and find it worth the wait.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 44: Bonds...**

Yellow streak...Orange streak...Yellow streak...Orange streak...

That was all that the untrained eye could see as father and son clashed together outside the woodlands of the Hidden Leaf Village. The two golden haired kages were moving at speeds that some would hesitate to even consider human. Minato in particular had been hailed as the fastest shinobi in history, and the fact that his son was still able to keep up with him was a tremendous complement to how far he had come as a warrior.

Hack and slash...Hack and slash..._Clang_..._Clang_...Both of them traded steel again and again. The ringing of kunai coming together was heard throughout the battlefield as the two of them continued their dance.

Naruto made a move to throw a punch directly into Minato's stomach, but the elder Namikaze was too fast. He caught the punch with his own hand and twisted Naruto's wrist.

"AGH!" Naruto shouted.

Minato had the upper hand now. He bent his son down beneath him while still grasping his arm. He forced him down towards the floor with his strength.

The Orange Hokage recovered quickly though, as he reached up and grabbed his father's wrist as it was on top on his own, and then threw his head backwards to head butt his opponent. The blow was enough to force Minato to stumble backwards to recover. This gave Naruto the split second he needed to land a powerful punch right to his father's face...

...But even in that split second the Yellow Flash was able to recover quickly enough to catch the Orange Hokage's fist with one hand.

"You hesitate," Minato said coldly and without emotion. "You do not fight me the way you did back in Uzushio. Why?"

"You _know_ why!" Naruto responded desperately.

Blue light dimmered in the man's eyes for a second, before it quickly came back. "You are mistaken. I do not."

Minato quickly whipped out one of his signature three-pronged kunai and prepared to quickly thrust the pointed steel into the stomach of his own flesh and blood...

..But instead Naruto caught the blades of the kunai in between the fingertips of his bandaged right hand, much like he had done to save Tsunade's life in a battle against Kabuto many years ago.

"Your hand must been in pain," Minato stated without any emotion.

Naruto chuckled as his teeth clenched in pain and lines of bleed drained down his knuckles, staining his bandages. "Heh. This arm's been through way worse pain. _Trust me._"

Following his quip, Naruto kicked his father in the leg to break their grip. Minato was quick to pull out another of his three-pronged kunai, which Naruto was quick enough to dodge at the last moment. The sharpened steel cut through the zipper of his signature orange sweatshirt, splitting the piece of clothing in half and exposing his bare chest underneath. The blade had gotten just close enough to scrape his muscled chest, drawing a line of blood as the Nine-Tail's already went to work healing him.

Flipping backwards, he landed back on his feet and quickly entered a familiar hand sign. "MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

No less than fifty identical shadow clones (possibly more) of the blonde jinchūriki puffed into existence and wasted no time in ambushing their opponent. "UZUMAKI BARRAGE!"

The entire army of Naruto's launched an all out taijutsu assault on Minato. But it was a testament to his legendary speed and ability that he was able to block and parry every single blow that came at him with seemingly no effort whatsoever. Even when ten of the Naruto clones came at him in one single, synchronized succession, it still wasn't enough.

Several of the clones fell backwards or collided hard against nearby trees, forcing them to dissipate in a usual puff of smoke. The ones that didn't were able to flip themselves to recover as they skidded to a halt.

"MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Naruto created ten more clones, each of which began focusing their chakra into their hands and compressing it into a familiar spherical shape. The clones did not even wait for their creator's signal to make the charge at their opponent.

"UZUMAKI RASENGAN BARRAGE!"

The ten clones each threw a singular Rasengan at the exact same opponent. If they were fighting any other opponent then that person most certainly would have been finished. But this was Minato Namikaze, the _inventor_ of the Rasengan! The Yellow Flash himself! With a quick flicker, the Fourth Hokage was gone and the clone's attacks merged together to hit nothing more than the earth beneath their feet. The maneuver resulted in a huge explosion that left a crater out in the forest.

* * *

_BOOM!_

Sakura was trading blows with her own opponent when she found herself distracted by the explosion that her husband had inadvertently caused.

"Mistake."

The pinkette barely had enough time to react to a lethal attack volley from her own mother-in-law. The punches she was throwing were utterly lethal. They had the force of a wild animal, the rage of someone truly monstrous...Very much like Sakura herself actually.

Furthermore, all of her moves, which were just as quick and agile as they were blunt and impassioned, were doing nothing to fatigue her. This woman had energy to spare and then some and Sakura could only marvel at where all of it had to be coming from as she struggled to maintain her ground in this fight.

'Amazing...Her Uzumaki clan life force must grant her extremely high level vitality and stamina, just like Naruto...No wonder, if she managed to live for so long after Kurama was extracted from her.'

Sakura's line of thought was broken up as Kushina flung a kunai straight at her head. Thankfully, due to her high-level evasion tactics, she was able to dodge the blade, catch it in mid air, and fling it directly back at her opponent. But Kushina was not to be defeated so easily as she caught the kunai back in her own hand again and re-pocketed it.

"Kushina!" Sakura shouted. "Please listen to me! You don't need to do this! Think of your son!"

Time seemed to stand still for the red-haired woman. For the briefest of moments the blue light in her eyes had vanished.

"W-Wha? Where?"

...But then the light came back again. Without saying anything more, Kushina threw a volley of ferocious punches at her opponent. Her assault was so strong that Sakura found herself on the forest floor as the woman with the wild mane of red hair, this woman utterly overcome with rage and hatred, was pummeling her with punch after punch to her face.

The Red Hot Blooded Habanero had her claws out and she was ready to bring this fight to an end as soon as it had started.

* * *

"CHIDORI KATANA!"

Sasuke thrust his electrified blade forward at blinding speed. With each hack and slash the chirping of the electric current cracked through the air.

Uragi Rimonō was not one to be taken down easily however. The old man easily dodged the blade and then grabbed the Uchiha's arm and flipped him. He then proceeded to cast some quick hand signs in rapid succession.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: THUNDER WAVE!"

With a quick wave of his hands, a powerful wave of electrical energy burst out from the old man's body. Sasuke felt even his own limits tested as he was forced to roll out of the way at the last possible moment to avoid the huge and fast moving blast.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: THUNDER SPEAR!"

A literal spear in the shape of thunderbolt shot out of the old man's finger and hurled itself directly as Sasuke. Acting fast, the once fallen warrior blocked the jutsu with his katana.

"Got you. LIGHTNING BULLET!"

A short but powerful bolt of electricity fired from the old man's finger. Since Sasuke had only one arm, his holding onto his sword to deflect the Lightning Spear left his with a critical opening for Uragi to hit his directly in the back.

"AAAAGGGHHH!" Sasuke stabbed his blade into the ground for balance as his body pulsed with the energy from his opponent's most recent attack.

"You are outmatched Uchiha. As powerful as you may be you are still brought to you knees by an humble old man."

Sasuke merely huffed before smirking. "Don't you ever shut up?"

In that instant, something inside the Uchiha's eyes changed. Something powerful was awakened. His eyes turned red and morphed into a familiar, deadly tomoe form. The tomoe spread along the edge of the irises, taking the form of three intersecting ellipses. But Sasuke's dōjutsu was even more sophisticated than that, for he held within his face the eyes of his late brother Itachi, giving him the "Straight Tomoe", which allows him an even higher capability of reading his opponents movements and to fluidly act upon them.

"ETERNAL MANGEKYŌ SHARINGAN!"

His clan's fabled kekkei genkai had been activated, but unlike in the past Sasuke's gift would not be used as a weapon to bring about the end of the village, but rather as a tool for it's preservation. Not wasting time, Sasuke quickly ran through advanced hand signs with the fingers of his one remaining hand.

"BLACK RELEASE: KAGUTSUCHI!"

Unquenchable black flames erupted from him, controlled by his right Mangekyō. The black flames shot straight towards the old man at rapid speed. Holding nothing back, Sasuke used the power of his Mangekyō to manipulate the flames to grow to twice the height of his opponent.

But before the wave of black flame could incinerate him, the old man made some quick hand sings once again and cast another jutsu. "EARTH STYLE: STONE SHIELD!"

A prison of solid rock encased Uragi on all sides as the black flames surrounded him. In spite of the intense heat of being trapped within that space, the stone walls did their job of preserving their creator.

Sasuke did not let up. He focused his Mangekyō even much harder to further intensify the heat of the black flames. "You cannot keep this up. Surrender and end this madness Uragi."

"Never! EARTH AND FIRE STYLE: FLAMING STONE BARRAGE!"

Uragi was a rare kind of shinobi, one who possessed three different chakra natures—lightning, earth and fire. This made for some extremely dangerous combinations, such as now when a massive wave of flaming stones shot out of the earthly prison that was protecting the Taka leader. The stones were even more dangerous because many of them had caught light of some of Sasuke's own black flames.

Refocusing his right Mangekyō again, Sasuke squelched the black flames surrounding the stones and dodged the remaining lot of them that shot out like a cannon.

Dropping the stone walls around with merely a movement of his arms, Uragi smirked with arrogance at the Uchiha before him. "It that all you've got boy?"

"Not even close."

Focusing his chakra, something changed even further inside Sasuke's left eye. A great, incredible power had awakened within him and flowed into that eye as it changed color from red to purple. Six tomoe appeared in that eye, taking a familiar but dangerous pattern of a ringed ripple that spread over the eyeball.

The Rinnegan had been awakened...

* * *

Sakura could already feel herself huffing for breath as her opponent refused to let up on her ruthless assault. Her punches were as legendarily brutal and rough as her own. Even if Kushina's hands did not possess her or Tsunade's strength, they lacked none of their ferocity.

She needed to get herself back in the game. Focusing her chakra into her fist, she enhanced her strength within her to deliver a megaton punch that would finish most opponents.

However, Sakura's fist never made any contact. Why? Because a pair of golden chains composed of pure Uzumaki clan chakra materialized from her own body and entrapped her. The Adamantine Sealing Chains encased the woman in their unflexing grip as they tightened around her.

"Do not bother," Kushina said without a trace of emotion. "These chains are strong enough to hold a tailed beast. What hope have you then?"

Memories flooded back to Sakura's mind: Being picked on by other girls for her broad forehead...always getting left behind...always having to watch from the background...never being able to match Naruto or Sasuke...

...But she also remembered all of her training with Lady Tsunade, her long, long years of blood, sweat and tears she'd poured into her training, everything that made her the brilliant kunoichi she was today.

"What hope have I?" she asked incredulously of her opponent. "What hope have I?! I have the hope of my entire village! I have the hope of my son, my daughter! I have _your_ son's hope! _And_ his love! You want to know who I am?!"

In that moment, Sakura's body underwent a metamorphosis. The coloration in her seal disappeared, it's purple essence draining from its diamond marking and flowing in intricate lines over her face and her arms.

The Strength of a Hundred Seal had been released.

Struggling to loosen her hand, she managed to wrap her fingers around Kushina's chakra chains. Squeezing her fist shut, Sakura let out a scream of determination.

"YAAAAHHHH!"

The chains broke. The indestructible chakra chains that once held the Nine-Tailed Fox himself were shattered apart by the incredible, brutish strength of the pink haired woman standing there now.

The golden chain links of chakra cracked and went flying through the air around her as the woman looked to her opponent and introduced herself. "I am Sakura Haruno Uzumaki, and I am Konoha's Strongest Medical Ninja!"

* * *

Naruto stood before his father, the large crater his shadow clones inadvertently made was embedded in the earth behind him.

He took a step towards his father until he was standing right before him. "You know me."

Naruto's words aroused something in Minato's mind. The blue light within them flickered again before it came back with full imminence.

"NO I DON'T!"

One hard, furious punch to the stomach, one that, though he couldn't remember it, was a mirror reflection of the blow his own son had given him when they'd first met. The blow knocked the young man to the floor, the punch hard enough to make him cough up his own blood.

Standing up on his own two feet again, wiping the blood off his mouth, Naruto stared in sadness at his father before closing his eyes.

He could feel his and Kurama's chakra bubbling to the surface, he could feel the warm fire of its radiance encompass him, coating him from head to toe in its power. Yellow chakra coated his entire body, a black, circular design pattern appeared prominently on his stomach, the whisker markings that so famously adorned his cheeks became noticeably thicker like the Eight Trigram, and six magatama markings appeared around his collar. Numerous other designs appeared along his body, enough to resemble a black body suit that he seemingly wore underneath his open, glowing yellow jacket. But while his clothes glowed with the sheer power of this yellow chakra, his now yellow-colored face did not.

But what stood out the most of this transformation were his eyes. They had turned yellow, his pupils resembling a cross of vertical fox-slits with horizontal toad-slats. And yet this was not his renowned Sage Mode transformation, the lack of pigmentation around his irises confirmed that.

No, this was Naruto's most powerful form of all, one that was bestowed upon his as a gift from the great Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki himself many years ago. It was a form he had earned for his iron faith and for always having the guts never to give up. It was a form that he only continues to possess now thanks to his lifelong bond with Kurama and the few, lingering traces of chakra from the other eight tailed beasts that still resided in his body.

Naruto Uzumaki's true power had been awoken...the Six Paths Sage Mode had been activated.

With his chakra network fully restored and all of his power fully available to him, Naruto could most likely end this battle with ease...But he made no further move against his own father.

"Dad, look at me. Look at the kind of power I have. I could have ended this anytime I wanted! ...But I won't."

Naruto's form remained the same, but the golden glow was fading, signaling that he was powering down, even while still in his current form.

Minato stared at this with a bizarre, almost torturous mixture of remembrance and contempt. Two forces were at war within his own mind, and each was struggling, screaming at the other to rise back up and take control.

"I'm not going to fight you," Naruto said with tears beginning to form in his eyes. "I'm your son."

Minato neither did nor said nothing for a moment. He looked torn, desperate for clarity. He seemed to be in a trance as he walked towards his now fully grown son.

Naruto could not help but feel his heart flutter as he felt his father reach out and touch him on his shoulder. Tears of happiness flowed as the glow of his Six Paths chakra returned to him.

...

But then he felt a terrible pain in his stomach. Minato's other hand went straight for Naruto's stomach, for the seal. He could feel his chakra leaving him, literally getting sucked from his body against his will.

Minato's body was itself becoming engulfed in the glow of Kurama's yellow chakra, giving the appearance of a flickering golden flame. Minato's form was darker in color, but otherwise his was nearly identical to Naruto's.

As more and more of his chakra was drained, Naruto felt his Six Paths Sage form fading away. His eyes were changing, his markings fading, and quite frankly, it felt like half of his power was being robbed from him.

By the time Minato had let go, forcing Naruto to fall to the ground to recover from the shock of all he had just lost, he was standing before his son in full Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. "No, you are not my son...you're my mission."

Naruto stared up at his father in shock. How could this be? His father have given up his half of the Nine-Tails power long ago to save his life. This didn't make any sense!

He felt his eyes closing...his body weakening...the world going black...

...

**"NARUTO!"**

A sudden voice snapped the blonde man to attention. He'd know that deep, growling voice anywhere. 'K-Kurama?"

**"Yes kit, it's me! Now listen, your father has taken my Yin half back from you! He's taken that power back for himself and turned himself back into a jinchūriki again, just like he was before!"**

'...I know...I can feel it. I feel...split. Like a whole half of my power..._our_ power is gone. But how? How can he just suck somebody's chakra out just by touching them?!'

**"I don't know! But kit, remember earlier when Uragi killed the Mizukage's bodyguard?"**

'...Yes...I saw it. It was like his whole life force was drained from his body. Nothing was left of him but a rotten corpse.'

**"I don't know who or **_**what**_** Uragi learned this power from, but that same force must have taught this power to your father!"**

'...Wha...? ...What do I do?'

**"FIGHT!"**

'What?'

**"You heard me kit! Fight! Fight like you always do! If your old man needs you to beat it into his arrogant skull that your his kit then so be it! Do what needs to be done! Be the hero that I've been forced to live with for thirty-five years! Its not like you're completely powerless."**

...

Naruto snapped back to reality again, his conversation with the Kyuubi over. Regaining his focus, he looked down at himself.

Kurama was right, he may not have his Six Sage Paths Sage Mode available to him anymore, but he was far from powerless. His father had only ripped from him _half_ of Kurama's chakra, the Yin half.

No, the Yang half of the fox was still sealed within Naruto. A long cloak resembling a haori appeared on his form, a chakra shroud that served as an extrapolation of his opened jacket. Black markings on his body gave the illusion of a back body suit underneath his cloak, the black and yellow circular patterns intricately decorating the blonde's fiery yellow form. His pupils were slitted, and his whisker marks remained thick and in the Eight Trigrams shape.

This was Naruto's Kurama Mode, the embodiment of man and beast's hearts becoming one, the manifestation of their partnership, their friendship. And right now, it was Naruto's best chance to defeat his father and wake him up to the light.

"So...this is how its going to be, eh dad?" Minato's cold glare was his only response. "So be it."

Naruto focused his chakra into each of his hands and concentrated on rapidly rotating it. He let all of his power loose, and then he compressed it into twin glowing balls which he held in his palms.

Minato countered by performing the exact same feat. Two twin jutsu appeared in each of his hands.

There was a still silence...followed by a gust of wind...and then time seemed to stand still around them as each of them thrust their signature jutsu at the other...

Father and son screamed as one: "TWIN RASENGAN!"

* * *

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Two more copies of Shinachiku puffed into being and threw their kunai directly at their target. Sarada was easily able to dodge and she got in close and then laid a fierce, brutal punch into each one of them in rapid succession, dispelling the both of them.

The girl made quick hand signs and then cupped her hand around her mouth. "FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"

The giant ball of fire rocketed directly at the boy, who dodged out of the way. Quickly opening his backpack, he pulled out a familiar scroll and released the seal upon it. Out popped a katana, one of the weapons that he had made sure to pack with him way back when he first left on his mission with her father.

The influence of the chakra gem was totally consuming both of them. This was why the boy hacked and slashed at his old friend like a maddened animal. But Sarada was too quick for such reckless attacks, blocking the blade with her kunai, and with lightning reflexes she quickly whipped out another one with her other hand and left a cut in the boy's side.

"AAAGGHH!"

Shinachiku dropped his sword as he grasped his side, quickly using the limited healing jutsu he'd learned from his mother to rapidly repair the damage...This gave Sarada an opening she needed. After casting a quick fireball jutsu to the burn the scroll, and the remaining weapons he had stored within, she grabbed her own arm and focused her chakra for her next attack.

"ROAR! CHIDORI!"

Focusing her chakra into her hand, that familiar chirping of electric current roared to life as the girl's hand became consumed with lighting chakra.

Shinachiku saw the attack coming and so he needed to stop healing himself the leap out of the way of the Chidori. He then quickly made another shadow clone who rapidly began rotating the chakra he was gathering into his palm. Within moments, the jutsu was ready.

"RASENGAN!"

The boy thrust his hand forward into the girl's stomach. Once again, his opponent was quick enough to dodge at the last second and instead the boy had to catch himself in place before his jutsu crashed into a chunk of the ruined statues that lay scattered across their battlefield.

Turning around quickly, Shinachiku snarled in rage at the girl, and she back at him. Her Chidori was still in hand, as was his Rasengan...

...And then he surprised her. He THREW the glowing ball of chakra, pitching it at her like a baseball! This immediately moved Sarada to launch her Chidori into the air like a flying wave of electric current. Even in her state of rage she knew that the Chidori was much less likely to hold itself together in projectile form than the Rasengan was, but so long as it could last long enough to diffuse the boy's jutsu then that was what mattered.

In seconds, the two rapidly-growing jutsu crashed into one another...The result was a massive explosion that turned everything around them white...

Their techniques coming together was enough to create an enormous shockwave that launched both of them back several yards. They each crashed hard into the ruins of their ancestor's statues, Hashirama for Shinachiku and Madara for Sarada, respectively.

When the explosion finally settled, both of them were left glaring at one another from yards away that felt like miles. The Power Gem still sat on the ground directly in front of them, caught in the middle of a blast like that and yet it remained completely undamaged.

As the dust and debris from the colliding jutsu came to a still, both children struggled to get back up for a couple of seconds. The force of their respective impacts was like hitting a wall of solid brick at 100 miles per hour.

"Ah!" Sarada gasped out as she tried to get back her balance. "You...You never cease to impress me."

"Y-You too..." Shina replied.

But then Sarada narrowed her eyes again, glaring for three solid seconds at the crimson gem that lay mid way between them. "You know I can't let you have that power Shina."

"And you know I can't let you have it either. **No one** is better fit to have that power but me!"

"No one? **No one!** Sure, the Great Shinachiku Uzumaki, son of the greatest ninja is the world! The **last** thing someone like **you** needs is **infinite power!**"

"So says the heiress of the oh-so-mighty Uchiha clan, the traitorous, self-important blowhards that brought themselves to ruin with their own arrogance."

"How dare you?! How **dare** you insult my clan like that?!"

"Madara, Obito, Itachi, your dad...All of them A-rank criminals! All of them from your clan Sarada! Face it! The only thing you're the heir to is a legacy of evil!"

"Oh yeah! Like **your** family's any better?! You think that just because your dad and grandad were both Hokage's that that means anything? Your dad's an **idiot!** Always has been! You shouldn't even exist! The only real your mom ever married him is because she gave up on **my** dad!"

"SHUT UP!" Shinachiku furiously pointed a kunai straight at the girl's head. "Don't you ever talk about my family like that! **EVER!**"

"You're right. Your family's not the problem Shina. **You** are! Why don't you just face the facts? It doesn't matter how hard you train or what you do, you will always be a pretender! A second rate son forever stuck in the shadow of someone who actually **made** something of his life! Take you name away and what are you really, huh?! **Who** are you?!"

...

The girl's words, coupled with the power of the chakra gem, were stirring a fury inside the boy. Something was bubbling in the boy's stomach. Something dark...something primal...something...powerful.

Sarada's arrogant boasting stopped. Her cocky smirked faded. She did not need her clan's fabled kekkei genkai to sense the alarming, terrifying spike in chakra that was arousing before her.

There was an intense heat forming. The boy's eyes were growing slitted. His nails were getting longer. His teeth were become more fang like.

Sarada felt a sense of horror at what she was witnessing. She had felt this kind of power off of him before, when he would become infuriated at what might happen to his sister. But **this**, this was insane!

The boy's intense fury took physical form. A bubbling orange shroud of chakra engulfed him. A literal tail of chakra appeared behind him. The boy was forced to crouch down on his hands and knees as the sheer mass of power engulfed him, giving him an animalistic appearance.

Sarada had never seen this before, but she knew exactly what it was. She did not know how, but she knew there was only one person, one force in the entire world who could be responsible for this: "Kurama..."

* * *

Naruto and Minato's attacks collided as one. There was a white flash that engulfed the land mass, enough even to distract Sakura and Sasuke from their own battles, before their opponents called back their attention again.

When the Rasengan collision cleared, both Namikaze men got themselves back on their feet, their bodies still glowing from the golden chakra of their jinchūriki forms. Minato was the first to rise as he coldly readied another Rasengan in his hand.

Standing up, Naruto prepared the same...but then he felt something strange. He could feel his power slowly but surely draining away, bit by bit. It was frightening. It was like a portion of the fox's Yang chakra was leaving him of its own will. He could feel a fraction of his power exiting his body and go into another...And wherever the chakra was transferring to, it _wasn't_ going to his father.

'What the...? What is this? Why is my power leaving me? Why do I feel weaker all of a sudden?'

**"NARUTO!"**

The blonde was quick to question the voice in his head. 'Kurama?! What's going on? Why are you taking back some of your chakra?'

**"This isn't me...This is Shinachiku!"**

'What?! What are you talking about?!'

**"Listen to me Naruto...You and I have become partners, allies...friends even. When you achieved your stupid dream and forged your family I was proud of you, and I wanted to do something to make sure your kits stayed safe. So..."**

Naruto noticed the uncharacteristic sense of sheepishness in the fox's voice and he was not amused in the slightest. 'What the hell did you do Kurama?'

**"When you and wife first mated, I may have, err...infused your sperm with some of my chakra."**

'You _WHAT?!_'

**"Of course I did! Do you REALLY think that you could make love to your woman like that if you hadn't had a little help from me?!"**

'Don't make jokes right now fur ball! What the hell were you thinking?!'

**"I was thinking about your children Naruto! I wanted to do something to make sure your family stayed safe. So I infused a small sliver of my chakra into you sperm cells. This created a 'chakra link,' if you will, between your children and myself."**

Naruto suddenly got nervous as he started to understand. 'Are you saying...?'

**"I'm saying that Shinachiku and Hanami were both born with a subconscious link to me. If they want to they can commune with me even while I'm still sealed inside of you. More importantly, they each can absorb some of my chakra into themselves for their own use in battle. Once they are done with my chakra, it then reabsorbs back into me, and thus back into you."**

Naruto was at a loss for words within his own mind. 'Shinachiku's...he's draining your chakra from you?'

**"Not intentionally."**

'You mean he doesn't even _know_ he's doing this?!'

**"No, I've never communed with the boy in twelve years. If this is happening then that means something's pissed him off so bad that the dam's burst and now he's going to use his new power to tear the Uchiha girl apart!"**

'Sarada!'

Naruto snapped back out of his mindscape just in time block another kunai strike from his father. Kicking the Yellow Flash in the stomach with his own impeccable speed, Naruto pleaded with the former kage to see reason.

"Dad! Enough! Shina's in trouble out there! We need to stop this and go save him before he destroys himself!"

Minato's mind had yet another relapse. The blue light in his eyes flickered again.

"Shi—Shinachiku?"

"Yes! Shinachiku Uzumaki. My son. _Your_ grandson."

"Gr-Grandson...?"

There was a long, sad, sullen moment that passed for the older man. His eyes glossed over as the blue left his eyes once again and images started passing through his mind at a rapid pace:

* * *

_"Pathetic. This is how 'The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya' was supposed to end. Writing this story...it's all been a waste of time."_

_"Come on, don't say that."_

_The Toad Sage turned his head to his former pupil in surprise sitting on the opposite end of the table. Even more of a shock, Minato was sending him a genuine smile and a wink._

_"I though it was great. Each chapter reads like a page of your own life, sensei. It almost reads like an autobiography."_

_Jiraiya scratched his face in humility. "Yeah but...it didn't sell at all. Maybe I should try and sex up the sequel a little... That's my real forte after all!"_

_Minato didn't agree as he smiled down at the book. "The way the protagonist refused to give up, even at the end...that was really cool. He's just like you sensei."_

_The old man scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Hehe. You think so?"_

_Setting the book down, Minato suddenly got serious. "Actually, I was thinking?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"We want to raise our child to be a shinobi like the one in your book! That's why we decided to name him after the main character of your book. What do you think?"_

_Jiraiya stared at his former student in complete shock. "A-Are you sure about this? It's just a random name I came up with while I was eating some ramen—"_

_"Naruto...It's a beautiful name."_

_The voice did not belong to Minato. It belonged to a beautiful young woman with long, flowing red hair. Jiraiya had seen many gorgeous women in his life, but this woman speaking to him now was easily one of the fairest. "Kushina..."_

_The red-haired woman, now several months pregnant, stood beside her husband and placed her hand upon his shoulder._

_Jiraiya suddenly started laughing out loud as he sat up and scratched the back of his head again. "HAHAHA...Hoo boy...If I name him that makes me his godfather, right? Are you sure you want that on your heads?"_

_Minato didn't need a second thought about it. "Absolutely! You're a true man with true skill...an example we should all follow. I can't think of a finer shinobi than you."_

_Jiraiya remained frozen for a couple of seconds, letting the weight of his student's words sink in. "So...Naruto then?"_

_Minato smiled. "Yes...Naruto..."_

* * *

"Naruto..."

"Yes! Yes that's my name! Do you remember?"

"Jiraiya-sensei named you...We got your name from his book..."

"Yes you did! You wanted me to become a great shinobi who's strong and never gives up, and I have! I made a lot of friends and became Hokage, just like you! I have a wife and two children now, a son and a daughter!"

"I...I don't..."

"Think back! Think back to the day we first met! Remember? The day I nearly broke the seal?"

* * *

_Chakra, liquid hot chakra oozed out of Naruto's stomach as the seal remained open. The flooded floor of the boy's mindscape was becoming drenched with the tailed beast's power. Naruto was on his knees not knowing what more he could do, while on the outside the gigantic, hairless form of an Eight-Tailed Fox had burst out of its rocky prison hovering in the sky._

_Inside Naruto's mind, the Nine-Tail's deep, demonic voice beckoned the young jinchūriki over to him. "Come here...Pull this seal off."_

_Naruto was doing it. He knew not what else he could do. He could feel a power shifting in the palm of his hand as a number 9 appeared. "Damn it! Its to late! Why is this happening!?"_

_The transformation would soon be complete. That was for certain. Naruto had lost too much, been pushed too far. There was no escaping it any longer. He wanted it, craved it. _Needed_ the power! Maybe Sasuke was right? Maybe sacrificing your life was worth it if it meant gaining the power you needed for your revenge?_

_And so, in that moment, his hand reached out to tear off the seal..._

_...Only he never got the chance. Something had grabbed his arm. Or rather, someone..._

_The boy was shocked to see a grown man there with him inside his mind, before the gate that held the Fox at bay. The man was facing away from him, but Naruto could see that he had short, spiky blonde hair much like his own, and he was wearing a short-sleeved, long white kaori with a kanji on the back that spelled out his identity. An identity that Naruto could not believe he was seeing there with him._

_The kanji read: "Fourth Hokage."_

_But Naruto barely had time to register this before he was quickly whisked away by the mysterious person. The Fox growled in anger. "You!"_

_Naruto himself could not resist. He _had_ to know. He had to figure be sure that this wasn't some crazy dream. "The Fourth Hokage?"_

_The man explained it plainly. "The seal is set so that if 8 tails are released, I'll appear within your consciousness. I didn't want that to happen...I never wanted to see you again...Nine-Tails. But..."_

_The Fourth then turned his head to look at the boy, "...I looked forward to seeing how my son had grown...So I guess you could call it even."  
_

* * *

"My...my son...?"

"Yes...Yes! I'm your son! I'm Naruto! Don't you remember what else happened? What you told me?"

* * *

_"GRRRR! YONDAIME! Face me! I'll tear you to shreds!"_

_The Fourth dismissed the Fox's impassioned threat. "Now why would I go face someone who's going to tear me to shreds?" He then turned his attention back to the person who he really wanted to speak to. "Anyway...Naruto."_

_The boy was awestruck. "Naruto...? You know my name? How do...?"_

_"Heh. Well, I mean, I gave you your name. You're my kid after all."_

_"Kid? Wait, you mean...?"_

_The Nine-Tail's roared behind them, but the Fourth paid it no notice. He merely smiled and confirmed the truth. "Yep! Like I just said, You're my son."_

_The weight of the truth came down upon Naruto. Could it really be true? Was this really his father? This great hero? One of the greatest ninja that Konoha had ever seen? Yes! Yes! He was! Naruto could feel it. He felt warm, safe, complete. Tears welling up in his eyes and a elated smile on his face, Naruto knew in his heart that this man was his father._

_"GRRRR! Yondaime!"_

_The Fourth pointed behind him in annoyance. "This guy never shuts up. Let's go somewhere else."_

_He snapped his fingers, and just like that the entire landscape changed. Gone was the dark, dank dungeon that caged the Nine-tails and in it's place was a blank, white void. The only things there to occupy that space was the two of them._

_Naruto chuckled to himself as he wiped his arm to dry his tears. As his did so, the Fourth began to speak: "I guess Saidaime never told you. Hiruzen-sama wanted as little information about the Kyuubi as possible out in the public. If anyone knew you were my son, you'd have been in constant danger...Forgive me Naruto."_

_"Dad..."_

_Something snapped in the boy. He greeted his long lost father not with a hug, nor a smile, not even a handshake. No, his greeting came in the form of a sudden and brutally hard punch in the stunned shinobi's stomach!_

_The Fourth regained his bearings as he was forced to watch his son close his eyes as tears streamed uncontrollably down his face. The boy yelled out his frustrations, his anger, everything._

_"Why did you seal the damn Kyuubi in your own son!? Do you know how tough its been living like that?! I'm happy, I'm pissed as hell, I don't know what to feel!"_

_Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage had to take in his son's heartbreak as the boy couldn't stop crying. Closing his eyes, he continued to speak. "Naruto...how old are you?"_

_Naruto wiped away his tears and his running nose once again. "Sixteen."_

_"Sixteen, wow...I've...I've caused you a lot of pain, Naruto. I'm sorry...I've caused you nothing but grief...Some father I am...All I can do is apologize."_

_Naruto's response was to do the one thing an emotional boy his age could do: he acted tough. "Whatever...I'm the Fourth Hokage's son. I can take it."_

_The Fourth smiled in knowing sympathy. "I sealed half of the demon fox's chakra in you because I knew you'd learn to use it someday...Because you were my son."_

_The boy was stunned. 'He...he knew I would...?' But his thoughts were interrupted by what the Fourth said next._

_"I had a very good reason for it...Sixteen years ago, when it first attacked the village, I learned something."_

_"What?"_

_"Someone was hiding in the shadows and controlling the Kyuubi's every move. He too was a shinobi of unfathomable power. No one could ever face him without a very unique set of abilities. I'm sure he'll attack again."_

_His father's words caused Naruto to frown in sadness. "Konoha has been obliterated."_

_"Right...I saw it from in here..."_

_"You saw that!?"_

_"I know what happened to Jiraiya-sensei too."_

_Naruto was becoming alarmed and furious. "Was Pain the one who sent the Kyuubi to attack when I was a baby!?"_

_"No, it wasn't him."_

_"Then who!?"_

_"A man from Akatsuki wearing a mask."_

_Memories snapped together for Naruto instantly. He remembered seeing that man before. His mask was shaped like an orange spiral with one hole in it through which a single eye could be seen._

_"On that night..." The Fourth continued, "...he saw through every move I tried to make...He's no ordinary man...I'm almost positive he's giving Pain orders as well."_

_"No way!" Naruto exclaimed in protest. "Pain hates everything Konoha stands for! We destroyed his village back when he was a kid!"_

_"I see...Then that's all the more reason he'd be using him."_

_"Manipulated? But this guy behind the curtain!? Why is he so bent on destroying Konoha!?"_

_The boy's father said nothing for a moment, but then he spoke his mind:_

_"As long as the current shinobi system remains in place, we may very well never have peace. He asked you for your solution earlier...Figuring out the answer will be a long, hard road. War breeds from our desire to protect those dear to us. As long as there is love, there will be hate. Hate used and directed by shinobi. While this system remains unchallenged, that monstrous hatred will give rise to a new Pain. Pain may by Jiraiya-sensei's killer, but if you think long and hard, you'll realize that he was created by the chaos and strife of our world. To be a ninja is to be at constant war against hate. It holds true for all of us. Jiraiya-sensei made it his mission to end the hate once and for all. A mission he then left to you."_

_Naruto took his father's words in, processed them. And yet his heart was not wanting to listen. "I can't let Pain go...I can't let him get away with this!"_

_"Right..."_

_"Yondaime...tell me. What am I supposed to do?"_

_The Fourth could easily tell the desperation in his son's voice. He pitied it. But this was one case in which the father could not help his son. "You'll have to find the answer yourself. I don't know either."_

_"How the hell am I supposed to figure out something that Pervy Sage and the freakin' Fourth Hokage couldn't!? Stop lumping all this crap on me! If you hadn't noticed, I'm pretty stupid! I'm not even that good of a ninja! And plus—"_

_Naruto never got the chance to finish his rant. All his anger and frustrations were cut short by a hand touching his head._

_"You'll figure it out someday." The Fourth smiled. "I know you can do it."_

_The boy stopped. All of his anger vanished. Those few simple words were all it took. His father believed in him. There were no masks, no lies, no tongue planted in cheek. Nothing. There was only faith, and hope, and love. Naruto saw all of these things looking into his father's eyes._

_As the Fourth let go of his head, Naruto spoke again. "Really...? You really think I can..."_

_"Hey, a parent always believes their kid can do anything, no matter what."_

_The Fourth's smile was sincere and loving, a father's smile. But alas, as soon as it had appeared it vanished again as the Fourth knew he would need to end this soon...whether he wished to or not. "Now, it's almost time for me to go...my chakra's running out..."_

_He placed his hand on his son's bare chest, which was still oozing out the Kyuubi's chakra from its fractured seal. "I'll redo the seal...but this will be the last time."_

_Naruto felt a tug, a strong surge of chakra going back into himself as the familiar spiral seal was restored to its original form._

_"Konoha will grow again...It's in your hands now..."_

_The Fourth was fading away, his chakra was leaving him...The boy's father was disappearing..._

_...His father was gone...He had used the last of his chakra to restore the seal. He had given his son a second chance. He had put all of his faith in him. Not because he was forced to, not because he was testing him...Because he believed in him. His father believed in him. He saw the man that this boy was always meant to be and he gladly gave up his life a second time to allow him to fulfill his destiny._

_Naruto knew this, and be damned if he was going to waste it._

_'Thank you...Dad...'  
_

* * *

"Dad..."

Naruto was grinning from ear-to-ear. Tears of hope were starting to form in his eyes. It was working! He was breaking through! 'I've got to think of something else. Something that will make him remember...Wait! That's it!'

* * *

Sakura stood before her opponent, full power on display as the adamantine chakra chains broke free and her seal was released.

Kushina stared in shock at the woman's incredible, raw, untamed strength. It was strength and will power the likes of which she had not seen in any other kunoichi besides Tsunade, herself and...

"Mebuki..."

Sakura stopped in her tracks. "W-What?"

"Something about you...It reminds me of someone, some name...Mebuki... Who is that? I can't..."

This was it, Sakura realized. This was an opening she needed. This was her chance to finally get through to her.

"Yes! Yes you do know her! Mebuki Haruno! That's my mother's name! She was your friend! My mother told me about you a long time ago..."

* * *

_By the time Sakura made it back to her family's home, she found that her mother was the only person there._

_"Hey mom, where's dad?"_

_"He had a couple of errands of his own to run in the village today, so he said he'd be home late," Mebuki explained. "So where have you been all day sweetie?"_

_"Oh, just doing some of my own shopping and running into Ino and Lady Tsunade. They really helped me out today."_

_"How so?"_

_Sakura paused for a moment before she looked at her mother with determination. "Mom, there's someone I need to speak to tomorrow. Someone I should have spoken to for a long time now."_

_"Oh! Is it Naruto dear? I always did like that boy!"_

_Sakura face faulted, "W-What? How did you know...? Wait a minute! Then why didn't you want me talking to him while we were still little kids?"_

_Mebuki frowned, hard. "Well...at first it was because I was afraid. I was a new mother and I didn't want anyone going after you the way they always treated him...and I always regretted that too. But I always knew that one day that boy would turn into something special, and look where he is now!"_

_The older woman laughed, "You know, when you first came home and told me that you'd been assigned to the same team as both Naruto and Sasuke, I was happy that you were going to get to spend more time with your crush. Both I also really wanted you to get close to Naruto, remember me telling you that dear?" Sakura nodded her head. "But you wouldn't listen to me then because of how dead-set on Sasuke you were."_

_Sakura really didn't need any more guilt trips about this today, especially not from her own mother._

_But then, the woman got up from where she was sitting and pulled a book from the shelf. "Here, let me show you something."_

_Sakura sat down at the dinner table and opened the book that her mother had given her. It was a photo album, one that included pictures of both of her parents during their youth, but there was one photo in particular that caught Sakura's attention._

_It was a photo of two young Genin, kunoichi fresh out of the Academy. One of them was clearly Mebuki back when she was a girl, but the other one..._

_"Wait! You knew Naruto's mom?! How come you never told me?!"_

_"You never asked."_

_Sakura examined the photo in fascination. "Amazing, both of you were so young and pretty. I bet yours was a beautiful friendship."_

_Mebuki laughed at that idea. "Actually...we both hated each other."_

_"Huh?!"_

_"Well, during my Academy days, I was a Yankee. At that time I wanted to show everyone that I could fight alone, that's why I always picked fights with others, even though they didn't consider me strong enough. That's why I decided that in order to gain respect I needed to beat her...the girl from another village that the kids at school all called "The Red Hot-Blooded Habenaro."_

_"You picked a fight with Naruto's mom?"_

_"Yeah, I did, and for a while we were like that. I was tough, but ol' tomato face was that much tougher. But that changed one day when a bunch of bullies tried ganging up on us. Something came over us both, I don't know what, but we both decided in that instant to work together to beat the crap out of all of them...and we did! The stragglers ran away scarred to their parents and knew to never mess with either of us again!"_

_Sakura was suddenly getting uncomfortable, 'Kiba and Shikamaru were right, mothers __are __scary.'_

_"Anyway, after it was over we both shared a huge laugh. It was fun, and we found that we had a lot of things in common. And from that day, our rivalry blossomed into a beautiful friendship."_

_Sakura took all of this in, "Wow...I had no idea! Who would have thought that from rivals you two would become such good friends."_

_Mebuki smiled "We still fought though, I didn't want to loose to her, no matter what!"_

_"I'm so curious! Please tell me more!"_

_"Well, Kushina, Mikoto and I, we were all good friends, and when we each got married we all stayed in touch. We also all knew that we had kids on the way...Who knew that the three of you would all end up teammates one day...! When Kushina died, and Mikoto later, I was heartbroken, and I regret not being there for her's and Minato's son like I should have been...But I am so proud of what you two have become now Sakura!"_

_Sakura thought about this for a second before she left for her room. "Thanks for telling me that mom. And you're right, it is Naruto that I need to talk to, before I loose him forever!"_

_"Go get 'em Sakura!" Mebuki pumped her fist in the air in support.  
_

* * *

Sakura finished recounting her memory. "I was having problems sorting out my feelings...I was confused...I was lost...Lost about how I felt about your son. My mom told me about you two, and I knew after that talk that I at least had to talk to him. I had to speak to him before I lost my best friend forever."

Kushina took all of this in as the blue light left her eyes once again. Her mind started drifting back again, back to some distant memory of her old life, whatever that was, before now...

* * *

_"Hey Mebuki, I was thinking," Kushina said_

_"What is it? Mebuki asked._

_"Wouldn't it be great if our children ended up getting married someday? We would become some kick ass mother-in-laws, y'know!"_

_"Pfft! Honestly you! Your child hasn't even been born yet and you're already making plans. Besides, who tells you that it's going to be a boy?"_

_"He will! I'm 100% sure about it! I can feel it, y'know!"_

_Kushina then turned her attention to an adorable bundle of joy cradled in Mebuki's arms, one with bright pink hair, wide emerald eyes, fat, puffy cheeks, and a wide forehead._

_"And you agree with me, right Sakura?"_

_Kushina tickled the baby's cheeks, causing her to laugh adorably, "Aw! See! See! She agrees with me!"_

_"You're tickling her! That's cheating!"_

_"So cute! My baby is going to be all yours...unless Mikoto's girl will be prettier that is."_

_"Mikoto's having a baby boy, you idiot!"_

_"I'm joking, I'm joking! It's just...I can't wait to see our future."_

* * *

"Sakura..."

The pinkette stopped in shock. "W-What?"

"You're name...is Sakura."

Tears started welling up in her eyes. Sakura has done it! She knew her! She was remembering! 'I have to get through to her again. I have to make sure she remembers _him_...What! That's it!'

She remembered one of her favorite chapters from her husband's book. She just hoped that the memory was powerful enough to have the effect it needed to have.

"Kushina," Sakura asked, "can you remember the day your son was born? Do you remember what you said to him the day you died...?"

* * *

_Kushina, bloodied and dying from the loss of the Nine-Tails, and with her chakra chains currently the only thing keeping the released beast from continuing his rampage, looked on both in shock and fury at what her husband was about to do._

_"After I finish the Dead Demon Seal I'll place your remaining chakra into Naruto as well. You'll meet the grown-up Naruto sooner than you think...The time will come when he'll attempt to take control of the fox's power...I want you there to help him."_

_Kushina could not believe what she was hearing. "Our __**son**__...That's why! I don't want him to bear such a burden all on his own!"_

_Minato, with the Reaper behind him and ready to claim its next life, frowned as his wife continued protesting._

_"But why...__**Why the Dead Demon Seal?!**__ There's no reason for you to die...just so I can meet him for a few minutes when he's older! I wanted you to be there for him...I wanted you to raise him! Why...Why are you sacrificing __**Naruto**__ just to preserve the balance of the tailed beasts...to save the village...and the country... Why are you sacrificing yourself for me?!"_

_As Kushina stopped her rant to catch her breath, Minato spoke. "Turning your back on the country, on the village, is just as bad as abandoning a child. You should understand...you saw your own country fall apart. You know the pain of growing up without a home of your own...And you know that we are a family...of shinobi!"_

_Kushina only stared as her husband continued. "Besides, even if I lived I could not substitute for you." He continued as he saw Kushina's perplexed expression. "There are things Naruto needs to be told, things I could never say myself. That's a mother's job and I need you to carry it out. Even if you only have the briefest of moments to do so. This isn't just for you...This is for Naruto!"_

_Minato got on one knee in front of his wife and gently picked up their son in his arms. "Dying to make a better life for his son...that's the stuff you let the father handle."_

_There were no further words. Only silent conversation. The Dead Demon Seal was released and the Reaper reached out his hand and began its work. The seal that blocked the family off prevented some approaching Leaf ninja, led by the Third Hokage, from getting in to stop what was happening._

_"Seal."_

_With that one word, the Reaper pulled at both Minato's and the Nine-Tail's chakra, shrinking the beast._

_After some quick hand signs, Minato created a miniature alter with a baby basket in the center of an eight trigram candlelit octagon. "Now for the Eight Trigrams Seal! I'm going to seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto."_

_The Fox was no fool though. He could tell right away what was about to happen, and it'd be damned if it would ever allow itself to be sealed within a human ever again!_

_As Minato placed the baby in the ceremonial throne, the Nine-Tails broke free of its bindings._

_"Kushina, stay with me!" Minato shouted._

_The Nine-Tails went in for the kill. Its gigantic claws aimed straight for the infant's heart..._

_...But it never made contact. It stopped within millimeters of the child. Why? Because both parents, the mother and then the father, each instinctively jumped in front of the fox's claw, impaling them both._

_Blood dripped next to the newborn's body as the dying lovers talked amongst themselves._

_"If the father can do this job...the mother should be even better, right?" Kushina quipped to her husband as she was dying._

_The Fox cursed them. __**"Damned humans!"**_

_The beast tried to rip through them to the baby, but the mother gripped the claw and struggled to hold it in place. Both of them were grimacing in indescribable pain._

_"You win," she said to Minato. "First argument you've ever won...I guess you're really serious..."_

_Minato smiled from his bleeding mouth. "Thank you Kushina..." He then made some rapid hand signs. "SUMMONING JUTSU!"_

_What puffed into their presence was a fully grown toad who's lower body was in fact a large scroll. It panicked after seeing the horrific scene._

_"Aah, the Nine-Tails! And Fourth, what the hell happened to you?!"_

_"Gamatora, I'm entrusting you with the key to the seal. Hurry to Jiraiya-sensei...Store it with him."_

_After the key was given, the toad sealed up the scroll. "Got it! Good...Goodbye!"_

_The toad vanished in a puff of smoke and Minato watched. "That does it..."_

_The Reaper was taking both Minato's and the fox's souls away with it now. It was ready for its final maneuver now, as it licked its lips while pulling out its blade._

_"Its time for me to go Kushina...I'm going to perform the Eight Trigrams Seal...And try to leave a little of my own chakra in Naruto, too! We don't have much time...If you have anything to say to Naruto..."_

_Kushina knew this was her last chance. This was the first and last time she would ever get to speak to him while she was alive. She needed make it count. So, with her dying words, she began to speak:_

_"Naruto...don't be a fussy eater...Eat a lot and grow up to be a big boy! Take your bath every day...Go to bed early and sleep well! Make friends...it doesn't matter how many...Just make sure they're real friends...people you can trust...even a few is enough! And study your ninjutsu...I was never very good at it, maybe you will be...Everyone has things they're good at and things they're not...Don't feel bad if you can't do it all. Make sure you listen to the teachers...at the Academy. Save what you earn from missions...No drinking alcohol until your 20, and don't overdo it or you'll ruin your body. And as for women...Well, I'm a woman so I don't know what to say, but there are only men and women in this world, and you'll want a girlfriend someday...Just try not to pick a weird one...Try to find someone like your mother...And the fourth warning...Watch out for Jiraiya-sensei!_

_...Naruto...You're going to experience a lot of pain and suffering...Remember who you are! Find a goal...A dream...And don't stop until it comes true!_

_...There's...There's...! There's...There's so much more I want to say...to teach you about...I want to stay with you...I love you..."_

_Minato listened to everything that she was saying. He knew that this was breaking her heart, probably even worse than it was his._

_"I'm sorry Minato...I took all of your time..."_

_"It's okay." With that said, it was the father's turn to say his own farewell to his son. "Naruto...this is your dad." He smiled in his pain as Kushina was overcome with tears. "Listen...to your loud-mouth mother."_

_The baby, whether he knew it or not, heard all that was said to him as his world went white at the final sound of his father's voice: "EIGHT TRIGRAMS SEAL!"_

_...  
_

* * *

...

She remembered. She could remember that moment clear as day now. Tears flowed uncontrollably at the memory of the day her life ended and she was forced to say goodbye to the one that meant more to her than anything in the world.

...But she remembered something else too. A happy memory, a blissful memory. She had told this same story herself to her son, on the very day Minato had promised her that she would get to see her son again...

* * *

_"I'm so sorry..." Kushina cried within the boy's mindscape. The sixteen year old boy, no, __**man**__ standing before her now had just heard his entire origin for the first time. And the worst part of all of it was that she had no idea how he was going to handle it._

_"We made you into the Nine-Tail's vessel, and left you with such a heavy burden. I wasn't there to raise you...I wasn't there to love you!"_

_Naruto was silent for only a moment before he smiled slightly but sincerely. "Don't apologize. I had lots of hard times, growing up as a jinchūriki. But I never blamed either of you!"_

_Kushina was shocked as her son continued. "Maybe I never understood what a parent's love is really like, but I never had a mom or dad to begin with...So I managed."_

_As Naruto kept talking, tears began to form in the woman's eyes. "But now I get it. I live because my mom and dad gave their lives for me."_

_And then she saw it. That big, goofy, carefree smile that could melt the heart of anyone. "You filled me up with love before you put the Nine-Tail's in me! So here I am, happy and healthy! I'm glad I ended up being your son!"_

_The tears flowed freely as Kushina broke down, her form at last beginning to dispel away, as she wrapped her arms tightly around her boy. 'Did you hear that, Minato? Our love reached him after all...'_

_Still crying, Kushina said her final, parting words to him. "Naruto...Thank you for letting me be your mother, for letting Minato be your father. Thank you for being our son. Thank you...Thank you!"_

_...And with that, she was gone in body, but not is spirit. Naruto closed his eyes as his mother's final words rang in his ears, her blissful aura washing over him, as his world turned white once again...It was...overflowing..._

* * *

"Naruto..."

Tears flowed from her eyes... All of her memories had returned... Kushina Uzumaki was whole again.

Wiping her eyes, she walked slowly over to the pink-haired woman before her. Sakura was too nervous and hopeful to put forth a defensive pose in case it turned for the worse.

Instead, she was shocked to feel a sudden, tight embrace of the woman wrapping her arms around her and bringing her into her chest. "Thank you..."

That was all it took to break the dam. Sakura's own eyes wept on the spot as she returned the hug.

'Naruto,' Sakura thought to herself as her eyes closed, 'you're mother is home...'

* * *

"Dad!" Naruto shouted. "Do you remember the last time we saw each other? It was back during the war. Orochimaru had used his jutsu to bring you and the other kage's back for the fight and when Madara took my half of the Nine-Tails out of me you gave me your half to save my life! I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you! My children would _exist_ if it wasn't for you! You met my wife that day, you thought she was my girlfriend back then remember?"

Time froze around them as Minato sudden let out a very, very slight chuckle. "Heh...That temper...she reminded me of her..."

Naruto had to stop to contemplate what he meant, but it clicked quickly enough. "Yeah! Like mom! Sakura is a lot like mom was. You remember her? You remember _me!?_ Do...Do you remember when we said goodbye...?"

* * *

_The battle was over. Kaguya had been sealed away once again. Team 7 stood there on the open battle field as Sasuke, his newly gained Rinnegan eye still activated, looked on in regret at the First Hokage himself staring down at his fallen friend Madara._

_"It's time. I'll send them all back."_

_Those words from the Sage of Six Paths caught Naruto's attention. He knew that however long and arduous this day had been, however exhausted he may have been from the biggest battle of his life, he would never forgive himself unless he had one final world with someone he loved._

_So, leaping away from the others, he landed in front of the reincarnated body of his father, now armless after the events of the battle. "Dad!"_

_"Oh yeah, there's something I've gotta tell you."_

_As the sun peaked over the horizon, Minato smiled at Naruto's curious expression. Then he delivered his message: "Happy birthday."_

_Minato closed his eyes and smiled warmly. "You've grown so much, Naruto."_

_The young man smirked back. "Yeah...Thanks..."_

_But then it was time to get serious as Minato spoke again. "We don't belong here...so we can't stay long. This is it." He could see the disappointment on his son's face, and it tore at his heart as he could already feel himself disappearing. "I'll tell Kushina all about it..."_

_Something came over Naruto in that moment. He wanted to lay it all bare. He knew he would never get to see either of them ever again, so he wanted no worries on either side._

_"Tell her I'm eating a lot and doing fine! I'm not a picky eater either. I put miso and soy sauce in my tonkotsu...__**Ah!**__ And I don't only eat ramen! I shower almost every day! And I sometimes go to the Konoha Hot Springs! Apparently its called the Crow's Bathing Tub or something like that!"_

_As Naruto kept talking, Sakura was off on the sidelines holding up her sensei, Kakashi, on her shoulder. She knew this was a sad moment for him and she would do nothing to spoil it, but she could not imagine what it had to feel like for him, to have to say goodbye to his father forever..._

_"Oh, and...And! I've made lots of friends! They're all good guys!"_

_Sasuke was listening to his friend's goodbye too. He had no visible reaction to it, but inside he was feeling conflicted...Touched by what was said, but burdened but what he knew he would have to do next..._

_As all of the kages started disappearing as one, Naruto continued his speech: "And...I'm not really doing well with my studies but...it doesn't get me down...Well, that could be because I'm confident! I do listen to the Third Hokage and Kakashi-sensei! I respect them too! And he's here, so you can ask him now! Ah! And what's with the three shinobi taboos?! I learned a lot when I was with the Pervy Sage! Apparently there's a lot you can't do when it comes to the taboos but among the three ninja, I think the Pervy Sage is the coolest one! He's the best!"_

_Minato smiled as he son kept going. "I've only just become seventeen today...so there's not much I know about girls or alcohol! But mom told me to look for girls as great as she is... That's...uhh... Anyway! Not everything's going just the way mom told me! But I'm trying my best! I've got a dream...I want to be Hokage just like you, dad, maybe even better! I will become one!"_

_His father was practically faded away by now, and Naruto was unable to hold back his tears any longer as he made his final plea to his father. "So tell mom over there, won't you...to not worry about me! I'm doing very well!"_

_This farewell was inevitable, and he understood...Minato Namikaze was gone, along with all the kages, disintegrated in a gust of paper. But as Naruto stood there crying, he could hear Minato's final words echo in his mind: "Got it...I'll tell her everything..."  
_

* * *

"Naruto..."

His eyes widened... All of his memories had returned... Minato Namekaze was whole again.

Focusing himself, he walked slowly over to the blonde-haired, golden-glowing man before him. Naruto did not get himself into a defensive pose because he was too caught up in what was happening.

Instead, he was shocked to feel a sudden, tight embrace of the man wrapping his arms around him and bringing him into his chest. "Forgive me son..."

That was all it took to break the dam. Naruto's own eyes wept on the spot as he returned the hug.

"Welcome home dad..." Was all he could say while in his father's embrace.

Neither one of them kept track of time as they held each other. The joy of their reunion was too precious to ruin hastily...But soon enough they did need to break apart and both men smiled at one another.

"I guess your mother and I must have been a real handful, eh?" Minato asked while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Naruto chuckled. "Well, actually—"

"NARUTO!"

The blonde was cut off by a familiar voice. Turning, his eyes lit up as he saw a woman with flowing red hair run up to him and wrap him tightly in a bone-crushing hug.

"Welcome back mom..." he said with a sincere smile as he returned the hug.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry, I never wanted to—"

"Shhh..." he said to calm her down as he ran his hands through her hair. "Everything's alright now. There's nothing else to worry about anymore."

Minato smiled at the mother-son reunion. Coming up to them was Sakura, whom her husband acknowledged when he mouthed a silent, "Thank you."

After they broke up the hug, Kushina gave her son a once-over. "Wow! My boy sure has gotten handsome!"

Naruto blushed bright red. "Mom!"

She turned to face the woman who had helped free her from her mental prison. "And it seems he took my advice and found himself quite a woman too, eh?" Now it was Sakura's turn to blush. "Haha! I'm just kidding!"

"Mom, dad," Naruto spoke, "this is Sakura Haruno, she's my wife."

"Ah yes, I remember," Minato said. "You were the girl who healed my son during the war. Pleasure to meet you again."

She bowed in respect. "Arigato Lord Fourth."

"Sakura," Kushina said, "when all of this is over you and I are going to need to have some serious girl talk, if you know what I mean."

The pinkette sweat dropped. 'I think I have an idea...'

"Hey guys! If you don't mind maybe you all could help me out over here?!"

Everyone turned their heads to see Sasuke was still in the midst of his battle with Uragi. Even with Sasuke's Rinnegan activated, the old man was still proving himself to be a shockingly formidable opponent.

"Naruto...your son," Minato pointed out.

The blonde snapped back to attention as he recalled how truly serious the situation was. "Oh shit! We've got to find him and quick!"

"Naruto, what's going on?" Sakura asked in worry.

"Umm...honey, I don't know how to tell you this but...umm..."

"Spit it out already!"

"Well umm...Kurama apparently created a link between him and our kids when they were conceived so now our son's gotten so mad that he's absorbing Kurama's chakra into himself."

**"WHHHHHAAAAATTTTTT!"**

Sakura's outburst was so loud that if actually distracted Sasuke enough of Uragi to land a solid kick in.

Uragi noticed that his two greatest mind controlled servants were free now. "No! NO! It cannot be!"

He reached back into his pocket to pull out the familiar blue gem once again...but then he had to curse his luck. 'Damn! That Uzumaki brat still had the Mind Gem! There's no way I can regain control over them now!'

"I grow tired of this!" Using one of his kunai to cut his own hand, the old man slammed his bloody hand to the ground and enacted the pact. "SUMMONING JUTSU!"

In a massive puff of smoke, a gigantic creature appeared before all of them, which Uragi was riding on top of its head. It was a giant scorpion, one with pincers the size of buildings and not one, not two, but **three** tails complete with stingers that were poised to strike.

Uragi wasted no time in introducing his backup. "Behold Kuīnsasori, Queen of the Three-Tailed Scorpions of the Demon Desert! She will be your doom this day and Taka's salvation!"

Sasuke leaped backwards and landed beside his two former teammates and his best friend's newly-restored parents. "Now _there's_ something I wasn't expecting."

Naruto frowned. "I thought coming up with the witty comebacks was _my_ role?"

"I don't recall any of us ever signing a role sheet about it—"

"Would you boys knock it off!" Sakura insisted. "We don't have time to waste on this!"

"She's right!" Kushina said. "Naurto, you need to stop this man before anything happens to my grandson!"

"Or my daughter!" Sasuke added.

Naruto turned his head back and looked up at the Queen of the Scorpions before them. "Well then, I'd say its about time we call in some reinforcements, huh guys?"

Naruto and Sakura were quick to catch on to what he meant and both of them smiled and nodded.

"Mom, dad," Naruto said to his parents, "both of you might want to stand back." They heeded their son's advise and stepped backward. "Maybe a little more."

And so, as one, the three former members of Team 7 stood side-by-side and bit their thumbs before slamming their hands to the ground.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

Three colossal puffs of smoke. Three enormous creatures appeared on the battlefield. Three extremely powerful shinobi stood proudly atop their heads in their most powerful forms—Naruto in his flickering Kurama mode, Sasuke with his Rinnegan activated and sword drawn, and Sakura with her Strength of a Hundred Seal still released.

Beneath each of them were each of their own personal summons. Naruto had called forth a gigantic red toad, a pipe in his mouth and a tantō sword at his waist, Sasuke a gigantic blue snake, and Sakura a gigantic blue and white slug.

A battle of the beasts was about to begin, and it would need to begin quickly...Shinachiku and Sarada were both counting on it.

* * *

Whoa! This might very well have been the longest chapter of this story so far! For a lot of these chapters I usually let the story come to me and allow the thing to flow for itself, and in this case, as the chapter found its language, it amounted to something pretty long. I thank you all for your patience.

As you probably noticed, there were quite a few flashback scenes in this chapter. Not only were these flashbacks to chapters of the manga itself, but also to scenes I have included in my previous stories. I'll go over them for you:

The scene between Minato and Jiraiya where Minato asks to name his son after the main character's of Jiraiya's book was taken from Chapter 382, in the scene that was also Kushina's first appearance. I added a little coda to the end of that scene to change the perspective a bit to make it from Minato's point-of-view this time, whereas in the original it was one of the last thing's Jiraiya was thinking back on before he died.

The first meeting between Naruto and Minato was taken from Chapters 439 and 440, during the Pain Arc. I previous adapted this scene into my story "Happy Father's Day Naruto," so this might have felt repetitive to some of you, but keep in mind that both stories are many years apart, and in a sense that whole story can be seen as a setup for this specific chapter.

Both the scene with Sakura and her mom and the flashback between Kushina and Mebuki were taken from Chapter Four of my story "Heaven and Earth: Together At Last." Furthermore, both scenes were also direct adaptations of an unfinished manga by the amazingly talented LadyGT. You can visit her page and look up her work to find the comic. Like all of her Naruto work it looks so miraculously spot on to Kishimoto's style that if you didn't know any better you may actually mistake it for the real thing!

Then of course there was Minato and Kushina's death scene, which is directly adapted from Chapter 504. I had previously adapted this scene in my story "Happy Mother's Day Sakura," but in that story I only used Kushina final, dying words to Naruto. Here, I went the extra mile and included the entire scene! I thought that was important to do because Kushina needed to be snapped out of her brainwashing and I didn't think that just using her final words would have had the same emotional impact and raw power I felt that moment needed. Like my Father's Day story, my Mother's Day story can been seen as a prequel to this specific chapter.

Also taken from Chapter 504 was Kushina's final goodbye to Naruto and his acceptance of their love. It was a beautiful scene and, quite honestly, 504 is one of the best written and certainly one of the most emotional chapters of the entire series, at least to me. I would seriously like to know how many Naruto fans cried when they first read it, or when they saw the anime version for the first time?

The last flashback was to Chapter 691, the scene after Kaguya was defeated and Naruto says goodbye to his father for the last time (in canon). Like with Kushina, I also found this an strong, emotional moment and one that directly called back to everything Kushina wanted for her son.

I know that some of you might think I went overboard on the flashbacks here, but the whole point was for both Minato and Kushina to be flooded with emotional memories of their son, and after all the buildup I did for this moment, I had to make sure it was as emotional and felt as non-random and unforced as possible. I feel like I pulled it off, but you guys can likely judge it better than I can, so let me know.

As for the rest of the chapter, there was obviously a lot of fighting going on in the first half. My biggest inspiration for these scenes, and these match ups, goes back to what has been one of my pioneering influences for this entire story, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." If the battle at the Land of Whirlpools was inspired by Cap and Bucky's fight on the streets where Bucky gets his mask ripped off, then these scenes were my answer to their final battle aboard the Helicarrier.

In fact, after Minato reabsorbs Kurama's Yin half into himself, he refers to his son as "his mission." This was a direct homage to "The Winter Soldier," where Cap refuses to keep fighting Bucky because he's his friend, and Bucky responds by saying, "And you're my mission" as he repeatedly punches Cap in the face with his metal arm.

As I said in the beginning of the chapter, Naruto catching Minato's kunai in between his fingers was a callback to the fight with Kabuto during the Search for Tsunade arc. It always looked brutal to me and so it stuck in my memory.

The moment where Kushina says "Your name...is Sakura" was inspired by the ending of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." At the end of that film, after Spock's mind is restored to his body, he stops and turns back to Kirk and the big emotional relief is that he does recognize him: "Your name...is Jim." In my mind I imagine Kushina saying her line similarly to how Nimoy says his line in that film.

We got to see all three members of Team 7 go into their ultimate forms in this chapter: Naruto used his Sage of Six Paths Mode, Sasuke activated his Rinnegan, and Sakura released her Strength of a Hundred Seal. Awesome!

The idea of Minato reabsorbing Kurama's Yin chakra back into himself was something I felt I had to do in order for their fight to feel truly fair. Plus, lets face it, when you imagine a fight between father and son like this, the image of both of them in their Nine-Tails Chakra Mode is what comes to your mind, isn't it?

Okay, lets go ahead and discuss the really big shocker of this chapter...Shinachiku can absorb Kurama's chakra into himself! I know that this might seem like a hoaky idea to some of you, but it was one that I had in my head pretty much from the beginning, and if you go back and reread some of the earlier chapters I did drop hints that there was something powerful and inhuman about the boy's chakra whenever he got particularly angry. Of course, the downside of this development is that the more of Kurama's chakra he absorbs, the more he takes directly from his own father, thus potentially weakening him.

For those of you who need a comparison, remember the filler arc in Shippuden where the character Sora was revealed to be a partial jinchūriki, even to the point of him having a Four-Tailed transformation? That's similar to what can happen here.

The weirdest part of this development is probably Kurama's explanation of how this chakra link between them was created in the first place. The Nine-Tails fusing Naruto's sperm with some of his chakra is, I admit it, a very creepy and gross idea! But it seemed like the most logical answer and, by this point, I seriously would not put it above Kurama to let Naruto's kids have a at least a sampling of his power. Don't forget, in my story "Naruto Big Day" I did write a scene where Naruto made love to Sakura using his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. LOL!

I've always had a theory: in canon, Boruto and Himawari have inherited their father's distinctive whisker marks, but according to Kishimoto's own rules that shouldn't be the case because the only reason Naruto has them is because his fetus was growing inside of a pregnant jinchūriki. Hinata was never a jinchūriki, so the only possible explanation I could come up with for this was, as gross as it sounds, that Naruto somehow had Kurama's chakra inside of his sperm both times he and Hinata did it. I know that's a really weird theory, but I've never heard Kishimoto or anybody else bring it up, so that's why I'm saying it here.

So yeah, next we are getting the three summons—Gamakichi, Aoda and Katsuyu—fighting off a giant scorpion. I bet you didn't see that coming did you? I don't even know why I decided to choose a scorpion for Uragi's summon, other than its something that seems like it could exist in this world that I've never seen in the series save for a singular filler episode. We know from previous chapters that Uragi went on a quest of self discovery that did take him into the desert, maybe he encountered Kuīnsasori (whose name literally means "queen scorpion") while he was out there?

I think that's all I've got for this time. Again, thank you all so much for your support your guys, and I hope to see you all back again next time.

Until next time, see ya!


	47. Chapter 45--The Awakening

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the newest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure"!

Alright, let me say right up front that, without giving too much away too early, this chapter is probably not going to be what a lot of you have been expecting. In truth, this chapter is going to pay off something that I have been setting up for a long time now. I'll talk about it more at the end. Either way, I hope you like this one anyway.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 45: The Awakening**

"Dear Lord..."

Sarada Uchiha couldn't find the will to move as she witnessed the boy in front of her become engulfed in the bubbling orange shroud of chakra had consumed him. The tail of chakra, the fangs, the long nails, those slitted eyes...There was no denying it, this was Kurama's one-tailed chakra form in its full fury.

"Shina...please!" Sarada raised her hands in the air and took a step towards the boy in worry. "I'm...I'm sorry about what I said, really I am! You don't need to do this—"

_**"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR!"**_

The blonde's yell sounded inhuman, like a monster wearing a disguise made out of human flesh. It terrified the girl, made her fearful of what she should do, of what she possibly _could_ do, to stop this unexplained turn of events and snap her old friend back to his senses.

Those demonic eyes glared at her. They stared down her form with pure rage and hate. Sarada did not know whether that was the Nine-Tails or the chakra gem that spurred such rage in the boy...and quite frankly, it didn't matter.

Why? Because Shinachiku raised his had in the air from his crouched position and the bubbling chakra surrounding his form manifested into a gigantic clawed hand made of pure chakra. He brought the hand down and it caused a massive whirlwind that sent rocks and debris everywhere. Sarada had only a split second to summon her chakra to her feet to stabilize herself before she found herself swept away with the current.

The force of the wind was like a hurricane, stunning her as she shielded her eyes with her arms. 'The power...incredible power...'

It was a solid minute before the whirlwind finally dies down. When it did, the rocks and debris that were left on the ruined battlefield were all but cleared away and all that remained were Sarada herself and the possessed, growling animal that was once her closest friend.

"Shina..." Sarada expressed in worry. The beginnings of tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

There were no words to describe what she was feeling. No comforting. No apology. No retribution. This was her fault, she knew it.

'Look at him...he's gone insane! He's given himself over to something he can't control. All because _I_ called him a fake! I was so obsessed with that stupid gem that I said such horrible things...Its my fault...Shina's become a monster and its all my fault...'

...And with that, Sarada Uchiha cried...

* * *

_**Knock! Knock!**_

_The party guests were caught off guard. Everyone was here so who on Earth could that possibly be?_

_"I'll get it," Naruto told everyone as he headed to the front door. When he opened it, his mouth hung open in shock at who it was._

_"Hey dobe."_

_"S-S-__Sasuke?!__"_

_"The one and only."_

_"B-But I thought you said in your scroll—?"_

_"Change of plans, our mission cleared up in time after all so the wife said she wanted to stop by."_

_Naruto then noticed his distant cousin Karin standing next to his best friend. in her arms she was holding a baby girl about Shinachiku's age with black hair and eyes._

_"Hey Karin."_

_"Hey Naruto." She signaled to her husband to put down the gift he was holding under his one remaining arm and hold their daughter as she gave Naruto a hug. "It's so good to see you again."_

_"It's good to see you too." Breaking the hug, he got up close to the baby who seemed very happy to see him. "Hey there Sarada. Did you miss seeing your Uncle Naruto?" A baby girl's giggling was his answer._

_"So are you going to let us in or not?" Sasuke questioned bluntly._

_"Sure, right this way."_

_The blonde Hokage let his guests in to join the others, setting their gift in the corner. The Uchiha family were greeted with surprise by the others, especially Sakura who gave both of them a very enthusiastic hug before picking up their baby girl. In the background, Shikamaru was eyeing Sasuke suspiciously, as he had been ever since what happened the first time Naruto and Sakura tried to get married._

_"Hi there Sarada!" Sakura said to the happy baby. "You remember your Aunty Sakura?" The girl laughed and clapped her hands ecstatically for her answer. "Well its nice to see you__too dear."_

_Karin handed her back over to her mother, who then put her in the play pen with the other kids. Curiously, Shinachiku and Sarada started playing with each other really quickly..._

...

_"Sasuke! Karin! It's been too long! Merry Christmas!"_

_"Merry Christmas dobe," the Uchiha said with a smirk._

_"Merry Christmas Naruto," Karin said as she gave her distant cousin a warm hug, "Sorry we're late."_

_"No, no, it's fine. I really didn't even know you two were in the village this month."_

_"Yeah well, things are slow out in the real world right now and the little one really wanted to see her friends," Sasuke said as a young girl with black hair and eyes, complimented with red-trimmed glasses, appeared from behind her father's legs. The girl quickly embraced the blonde Hokage in an enthusiastic hug._

_"I missed you Uncle Naruto," the girl said with affection._

_"I missed you too, Merry Christmas Sarada."_

_The Uchiha family soon joined the party where a lot of people were surprised yet pleased to see them, although Shikamaru did keep a suspicious eye on Sasuke for the rest of the night._

_Sarada was greeted by the rest of the kids, many of them happy to see her again since she was so often away from the village joining missions with her parents. But then she blushed as she saw one familiar face in particular._

_"H-hi Sarada. Umm…Merry Christmas!" Shinachiku has a slight blush on his face as he greeted his old friend._

_"M-Merry Christmas Shina." Sarada's blush still had not left her face._

_"Aww, where's a mistletoe when you need one?" Ōkami mocked._

_"HEY SHUT UP!"_

_Both of them yelled at the Inuzuka boy, much to the amusement of their friends…and all of the parents._

...

_"Onii-chan, why don't you sing us a Christmas song?"_

_Shinachiku was instantly embarrassed. "Hanami?! Not in public!"_

_"Wait a minute, Shinachiku can sing?!" Chōchō asked incredulously._

_"No, no I can't—"_

_"Oh yes he can," Sakura said further embarrassing her son, "He only does it for his sister and us, and Hanami loves it. His voice is beautiful."_

_"MOM!"_

_"Oh! I have to hear it! I want to hear my grandson sing something!" Mebuki was giddy with excitement._

_"GRANDMA!"_

_"Aww come on Shina, do it for your Aunt Ino?"_

_"I-I don't know…"_

_"Please Shina, we all want to hear you sing," Hinata added._

_"But-"_

_"Yes Shinachiku! Let the flames of youth carry your magnificent voice to the levels of the sirens of old and bring us all cheer on this joyous holiday!"_

_It was none other than Rock Lee who made that random declaration, stopping everyone dead in their tracks as they stared at him; poor Tenten could only put her head in her hands. Only Burandon seemed to take pride in his father's…err, youthfulness._

_Shinachiku had no comment; he never did whenever Lee or Burandon made crazy speeches like that._

_"Listen guys, I'm sorry, but I only sing to cheer up my sister when she is feeling down or once in a while to make my parents happy. I've never done it in front of friends before. I'm just embarrass—"_

_"Please Shinachiku…" this newest voice stopped the boy's objection. He turned to see where it came from to find it was a blushing Sarada. "…I-I'd like to hear you sing too."_

_Shinachiku blushed for a moment, but somehow hearing Sarada say that gave him confidence. He smiled, took a deep breath and said "Okay."_

_The boy called his dad over for a second and whispered something in his ear. Naruto nodded back to him and put on some very specific Christmas music from the album that was playing in the background of the party. The track only had the music, not the words, just what Shinachiku needed. The music started as everyone there paid attention to whatever they were about to hear. A few seconds into the music, the boy started to sing:_

_...After the song was over, everyone was speechless. Some had their mouths hanging open in shock. The girls there that were his age were all blushing. The boy's parents smiled at him with pride, his mother with tears of joy threatening to come out. His sister was smiling happily that she got to hear her brother sing yet again._

_And Sarada…she looked like she was in a trance..._

...

"_SHINACHIKU!"_

_The boy felt a wave of surprise and relief at the sound of that voice. From behind his godparents came a girl his age with fair complexion, onyx hair and eyes, the hair she wore in a straight shoulder-length style. Her eyes were highlighted by a pair of red-rimmed glasses. She was dressed in a black vest adorned with the Uchiha clan symbol, over a white button-up shirt with red trim, white shorts and black sandals. The girl ran out and embraced the blonde-haired boy in a tight hug._

"_S-Sarada?!" Shinachiku asked blushing._

_The girl, realizing the emotional outburst she'd just had, pulled back from the boy blushing._

"_Umm…yeah, I mean, yes it's me…It's been a long time Shinachiku."_

_The boy smiled at her, blushing harder. "Yeah, it has."_

_This caused the girl to blush just as hard while smiling warmly._

...

"_Shinachiku," Sasuke began, "I know that I have not been entirely honest with you or your parents during this adventure. I regret that, but I had my reasons. You followed your shinobi instincts and were wise not to trust me." He sighed before continuing on, "I was hoping I could spare you from this, but it looks like things are going to have to change now."_

"_What are you talking about?" Shinachiku asked. "What is going on? What was that thing you did with your sword just now?"_

"_That," Sasuke gestured towards his weapon, "is a proof of trust. You know how powerful I really am kid, I could have gutted a Genin like you any time I wanted, but I didn't. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. But instead, I'm leaving fate in your hands."_

"_Say what?!"_

"_If you want to be open-minded and hear me out, to trust me a little longer, then you're welcome to. If not…you've got a perfectly good weapon to strike me down with. Don't worry; I won't think less of you either way."_

_Shinachiku, Sarada, even Karin was stunned at this sudden turn of events. Sasuke was literally inviting Shinachiku to murder him if he felt he couldn't be trusted!_

"_Sasuke?!" Karin shouted, but Sasuke merely raised his hand up to stop her._

_Suigetsu and Jūgo didn't say anything, just looked on in interest at whatever was about to take place, though Suigetsu seemed to be watching in a bit more amusement._

_As for Randamu…he was sitting their enjoying all the tension as he pulled up the bottom half of his mask so he could snack on a bag of popcorn that he got from seemingly nowhere. "The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."_

_After a few silent seconds of not doing anything, Shinachiku at last began to speak. "You show up at my house out of nowhere to lure me on this crazy mission without my friends, my family, or even Konohamaru-sensei. You plot with this red masked whacko behind-my-back while he tried to kill me. You apparently lied to me and my parents about you and Aunt Karin breaking up. And now you're telling me that you're okay with me killing you?!"_

_Sasuke smirked, "…Yeah."_

_Shinachiku stood up and grasped the blade, "There are so many reasons why I should…" _

_He stood still for what felt like an eternity…And then he let go of the blade. "But I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter. And I'd especially not want to leave Sarada without a dad."_

_Sarada was left speechless. He was right; he was in a situation where he had every reason in the world not to trust them. Common shinobi sense mandated that he not pass up this golden opportunity to secure his own life's safety. And yet he was…for _her_…_

...

_The cave was dark, gloomy, lit only by the light of the flaring torch that the blonde Genin was holding. The raven-haired, bifocaled girl beside him kept a careful watch around them for any surprises._

"_Hey Sarada, you okay?" Shinachiku asked._

"_Oh yeah, I'm just trying to stay alert and see if I can find anything suspicious."_

"_Well, I'll leave it to you. A master of the Sharingan like you, I'll bet nothing escapes your notice!" the boy said excitedly._

_Sarada frowned, what her old friend said troubled her, a lot. Still, something inside her, for whatever reason, told her that she should come clean with her secret._

"_Umm…actually… Well, the thing is…I, uh…"_

_Shinachiku looked at her in concern. "Sarada, what's wrong?"_

_Sarada looked down, unable to make eye contact with the boy. Whatever was bugging her was really bugging her._

"_Sarada?"_

"_Shinachiku…If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone else about it?"_

"_Yeah, sure."_

"_I mean it, no one! Not your parents, not your sister, not our friends; don't even tell my parents that I told you! Please?"_

"_Okay, okay! I promise! Jeez!" The boy calmed down and faced her. "Now what is it?"_

_Sarada took a deep breath, "Shina…the truth is…" The girl closed her eyes in shame at what she was about to say, "…I can't use the Sharingan."_

_Shinachiku was shocked. "What?! But you're an Uchiha!"_

"_I know! I know! I've been trying my whole life to activate it, but it's never happened. I know that my dad's disappointed in me; he never says it, but I know-"_

"_Don't say that!" Shinachiku shouted. "Your dad loves you; I saw it up on the surface before we came down here. And I'm sure that you'll awaken your Sharingan one day, you just need to keep training!"_

"_I've been training," Sarada snapped. "Every day, as hard as I can, since I was a little girl, but nothing's worked! It's been my biggest shame as a ninja, member of the Uchiha clan, and as Sasuke's daughter. I'm meant to be the future of my clan, but instead I can barely see a thing without these damned glasses!"_

_Shinachiku could see the girl was on the verge of tears. It reminded him of his sister whenever she was sad. He hated to see girls cry, especially strong, pretty girls like Sarada._

_His instantly wrapped her into a comforting hug, not even thinking clearing enough to feel embarrassed about it. Sarada, on the other hand, was blushing red as a tomato._

"_Don't cry Sarada," the boy told her. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're a strong, smart, brave girl, the coolest girl I know. And you're only twelve, so don't feel too bad that you haven't awakened your Sharingan yet-"_

"_Shina! My dad awakened his when he was seven! I've been told my Uncle Itachi did it when he was eight!"_

"_Sarada, come on! Your dad witnessed the entire clan being wiped out that night, and Itachi was…well, Itachi! You shouldn't let your clan's legacy or their expectations of you define who you are. Look at me, I'm nowhere close to my dad's level, or my mom's, but I don't beat myself up over it. I'm still growing up, and the best things in life only come through hard work and sacrifice."_

"_But-"_

_He broke the hug and put his hand on her shoulder, "Listen…maybe you're just a late bloomer or something? I know that one day your Sharingan is going to awaken, and even if it doesn't, you're still going to be an awesome shinobi one day Sarada. Believe it!" He smiled warmly at her, "Besides, I think you look good in glasses."_

_For the first time since this whole conversation started, the young Uchiha heiress smiled, very warmly too. Ever since she first met this boy, way back when they were little, there was always something about him. Sure, he could be a real clown some times and say and do things that got on her nerves, but that was all secondary to the strong, caring, compassionate young man that was speaking to her now._

_She couldn't help herself, she embraced Shinachiku in another tight hug, which he did return…But then it went a step further…she planted a kiss right on the boy's cheek._

_The young Uzumaki heir could not believe what just happened! He had always thought that Sarada was cute, but never in a million years did he ever suspect this!_

_Sarada, too, had an almost paralyzing realization of what she had just done. Blushing deeper than she had been that entire day, she was quick to apologize._

"_Oh God! I'm sorry Shina! I-I don't know what came over me! I really sorry-"_

"_It's okay…really." Shinachiku, like Sarada, was blushing as he felt the cheek she had just kissed._

_The silence that followed was very awkward and very unbearable…_

"_So, um, should we keep heading down this tunnel?" Shinachiku asked._

"_Y-Yeah, let's do that!" Sarada agreed._

_With that, the two kids continued on their mission as if nothing had happened…but neither noticed the smiles each was giving the other._

...

_"Wow...I'm impressed Shinachiku." Sarada complemented. "Two puzzles in row, you're pretty smart, just like Aunt Sakura."_

_The boy blushed at her complement. "Thanks."_

_Suddenly the girls got a sly smirk on her face as she got an idea. "Say, in speaking of music, how about we make this thing a bit more interesting?"_

_The boy's blush disappeared in confusion, "What do you mean?"_

_"How about if we make it out of here alive, you have to sing to me with that gorgeous voice of yours, any song I choose, however many I choose?"_

_"What?! Why would I agree to that?!"_

_"Consider it my consolation for not telling your parents about those dirty magazines I found under your bed."_

_"__**WHAT?!**__ How the hell do you know-"_

_"I've seen your room remember? I peaked under your bed while you were off going to the bathroom..." Sarada's smirk got even wider and more evil "Can't what a early teen like you might have been doing in there all by yourself."_

_"Sarada!" The poor boy was completely, utterly embarrassed. "Please, please don't tell anyone! If my mom found out about that collection she'd murder me!"_

_"So...do we have a deal?"_

_Shinachiku scowled in utter defeat, but he ultimately shook the girl's hand. "Deal."_

_Sarada smiled in glee, she loved hearing Shina sing, and now she was going to get treated to her own private concert._

_"Great," she relied in a happy mood. "Now lets keep moving."_

_As they both went through the now open door down yet another tunnel, something else occurred to Shinachiku._

_"Hey Sarada?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"No offense, but...what were you looking under my bed for in the first place?"_

_Now it was Sarada's turn to stop dead in her tracks and blush in embarrassment. "Umm...no reason."_

...

_The two children looked over the ledge to the crevice below. There was an opening on the other side, several yards down._

_"Looks like that opening is our only way out of here," Sarada pointed out._

_"That's pretty far," Shinachiku said. We could walk straight down the ledge with our chakra, but that leaves the problem of getting to the other side. It's too far to just leap to the opposite wall."_

_"Yeah, you've got a point."_

_As they weighed their options, some of the rocky ledge they were standing on broke off and fell into the abyss. but what Sarada saw next stunned her. It looked like the rocks landed on something solid and bounced off something that wasn't even there._

_'What the hell?' Sarada thought to herself._

_She grabbed another rock while Shinachiku wasn't looking and tossed it down, aiming for the exact same spot. The same thing happened, but this time the boy took notice somewhat._

_"What was that?" Shinachiku asked, "I thought I heard rocks landing on something?"_

_"Give m your hand!" Sarada commanded._

_"What? Why?" the boy asked confused._

_"Do you trust me?"_

_"What?"_

_"Do you trust me?"_

_Shinachiku actually blushed slightly at her question before he smiled, "Absolutely."_

_He gave her his hand...right before she leapt off the ledge with him in tow._

_"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Shinachiku screamed in panic, expecting his immanent death._

_What he got instead was rough pain as both he and Sarada fell flat on a solid surface...ad surface that wasn't there! Right across from them was the opening to where the rest of the tunnel lay._

_The children groaned in pain as they got their bearings back. "OWWW! What the hell was that?!" Shinachiku demanded._

_"Call it a leap of faith," Sarada quipped while groaning herself. "I saw rocks bouncing off something that wasn't there, so I suspected that there was an invisible bridge down here."_

_"You suspected an invisible bridge?! What if you'd been wrong?! We both could have been killed?!"_

_"Well, then we'd just have to figure something out on the way down...and besides, that way you would have gotten out of our deal."_

_"Since when do Uchiha's make such reckless decisions?" Shinachiku asked while standing up, again, on a bridge he could not even see._

_"We're not," she answered, "I only did it this time because I saw it work with my own eyes."_

_"Pretty sharp eyes...keep it up and I'm certain you'll develop the Sharingan in no time."_

_Sarada was taken aback as she stood up herself, "You really think so?"_

_"I know so, believe it!"_

_Once again, the girls couldn't help a minor blush that appeared on her face._

_Shinachiku noted their current situation as he looked down, "Whoa! Umm...we should probably start moving to the other side before anything bad happens."_

_"Huh?...Oh yeah!"_

_With that, both kids dashed at their top speed to the other side and made it through the opening, where somewhere the Chakra Gem still lay waiting for them._

...

_"Truly you children must be warriors of the highest order to have made it this far."_

_Shinachiku and Sarada frowned again, this time Shinachiku spoke, "Our parents are the great warriors, especially our fathers. Especially my father. I'm nothing compared to him."_

_"Do not doubt yourselves young man. Some day your pears will look upon you and say you will be just like your father, the bravest and strongest shinobi in the world. And then one day they will all look again and say, 'No—"_

_"He is greater than his father." Shinachiku finished the old man's words with a renewed pride in his voice. The old man actually smiled warmly at this before turning to the girl._

_"M'lady, the Uzumaki bloodline flows strong in your companion and I do indeed sense Uzumaki blood within you, but I also sense, more prominently, the blood of Indra's line, of Madara's clan. Are you of the Uchiha?"_

_"Yes, I am," Sarada answered._

_"I see. So, the lines of Asura and Indra Ōtsutsuki have come together at last."_

_Both children blushed bright red. "Wait, what do you mean by come together?!" Shinachiku asked in a panic._

_The old man realized he had maybe stepped out of line, "Oh please forgive me m'lad, I meant no offense."_

_The two children calmed down as Sarada spoke. "So...what happens now? Do we just take to gem?"_

_"Alas, 'tis not to be so," the old man said. "Both of you must offer up your blood to the alter to release the Chakra Gem, but first you must prove yourselves worthy be passing one final trial."_

_"And what trial is that?" Shinachiku asked._

_"You must answer a riddle, a riddle that I shall recite to you myself. Those who cannot answer wisely and correctly are not worthy of accepting the gem. Do you accept this trial?"_

_The children exchanged glances at each other before turning back to the old man and both answered as one, "We accept."_

_"So be it." The old man sat up as the kids sat down in front of him, waiting for whatever riddle the old man had to offer them, and praying internally that it wasn't anything too difficult._

_Finally the old man spoke: "This thing conquers all other things. It takes many forms, many shapes, many levels, but always it is found between two people, or often times families and friends. Once forged it can never truly be broken. It can be forged instantly or over time, and is as mysterious as it is wonderful. When kept in control this thing will free you, yet when out of control it will condemn you...Can you guess the answer?"_

_The children said nothing for several seconds, both of them deep in thought, until finally Shinachiku's head sprung up and he leaned over to whisper something in Sarada's ear. She seemed confused by what the boy was telling her at first, until he elaborated. When he did that, Sarada's face brightened up, but in understanding and in joy. The each turned back to the old man._

_"We know the answer sir," Sarada told him._

_"And what is your answer?" he asked._

_The kids looked to each other smiling and then back to the old man, answering as one, "Love."_

_"And why do you believe that?" the old man asked. "Why do you believe that a base emotion as insipid as love is the answer?"_

_"Love conquers all things," Shinachiku answered. "I've seen it every day of my life between my parents. They've been through so much, good and bad, and they always did it together. They shared a bond of love without even realizing it, before both of them were ever in love. My mother believed she hated my father when they first met, blinded by feeling of love for Sarada's dad. But over time their bond deepened into a true friendship, and ultimately into something more, something she never saw coming. And once their love was confirmed it would never be broken. More than that, you say that it takes many forms and shapes, so I think about my love for my sister, for my friends, for—"_

_Shinachiku stopped himself. He merely glanced at Sarada and then back, as did she._

_Sarada decided to finish speaking for him, "I have seen it in my family too. My mother was infatuated with my father and for years he did not return her feelings...until one day, before he ever saw it coming, he found himself in her arms and he was happy. My parents love each other, and they despite their faults, they both love me, just like Shinachiku's parent's love him and Hanami, and like how—"_

_She could not finish her sentence either._

_"I see," the old man said. "You both have answered..." The children made no motion as they each braced for the worst, "...wisely."_

_They both let out a breath they did not realize they were holding as the old man continued, "Indeed, love does conquer all. It takes many forms and shapes, and it can be instant or form over time. And once such a bond is forged it can never truly be broken. Congratulations young warriors, you have passed the final trial."_

_Some unknown force had come over the two children as they leaped up in joy, shouting "Yay!" to the heavens before embracing each other in a hug...which they quickly broke in embarrassment._

_"A promised, the Charka Gem is your...but be warned, even those who have the purest of hearts may find themselves corrupted by the gem's influence if they are not careful. Such is the price of such power."_

_The children looked over to the staircase leading to the alter and, not realizing that they had taken each other's hands, walked up the stairs to find a small chest that was intricately decorated in gold, silver and ruby. On the stone table that the chest was sitting on were indentations in the shape of a pair of hands, one for the left the other for the right._

_Both Shinachiku and Sarada knew what they needed to do next. They each pulled out a kunai from their weapons pouches and, stand next to each other, each put their kunai in their hand and grasped their fingers around it. Shinachiku held his in his right hand, while Sarada held hers in her left hand._

_Biting their lips and closing their eyes, they both slashed their palms quickly._

_"OW!" Both of them yelled as they screamed in their own self-inflicted pain. But they each got the better of themselves and placed their cut hands in their rightful place at the alter._

_What happened next was remarkable. The chest opened up and out of it came a bright, almost angelic red light. It was so intense that they each had to cover their eyes before getting used to the intensity of it._

_An then they saw it. Resting there in the chest, the source of the red glow. A small red gem that seemed so small yet they could both feel housed incredible power the likes of which they hadn't ever seen before._

_Shinachiku dared to reach out to grab it, but Sarada stopped him. Sharing eye contact for what felt like an eternity, they both enclosed their hands around the gem._

_The room began to shake. The tunnel was collapsing around them. If the walls did not cave them in and bury them alive then the water outside would drown them instantly. They both needed to get out of there. __**Now!**_

_And yet neither of them could move. It was like they were both held still by some invisible force which they could not control._

_With what power they had, they turned to the old man, who had watched the would scene. He had nothing to say, say for raising his had and declaring, "God speed young warriors! My duty is done!"_

_As if on cue, a bright red energy coursed out of the gem and through both of their bodies as they still held it. The energy passed through them until, after briefly making their eyes glow red with power, it forced both of their head up into the sky as the energy shot out of their mouths is a immense display of power, the ceiling above them shattering as a result._

_Neither of them knew what was going on, and neither had any clue how they would get out of this...but at least they were in this together, that by itself made it a lot better..._

...

_"Uncle Naruto! Aunt Sakura! Come here please!"_

_Shinachiku looked very distressed, 'What the hell is she doing?! Why is she calling them over here?!'_

_The couple walked over from where they were looking and came up to the two children._

_"What is it dear?" Naruto asked the girl. "Did you kids find something?"_

_"Maybe..." Sarada then made move and reached into Shinachiku's pocket to pull something out of it._

_"Hey! What the heck are you doing Sarada?!" Shinachiku shouted trying to stop her, catching the attention of the other adults as well._

_"Sarada!" Karin shouted, "What do you think you're doing?!"_

_"Sorry mom, but I think I found something that you need to see."_

_"What is that young lady?"_

_"THIS!"_

_She successfully pulled something out of the boy's pocket. It was none other than the red gem that they have spent this entire time searching for._

_"Shinachiku!" Sakura shouted in shock. "Where did you get that?!"_

_The boy snatched it away from the girl and put it back in his pocket again. "Its not important."_

_"Sweetie," Sakura began, "if you found that thing than why didn't you—?"_

_"I said its not important!"_

_Sakura looked taken aback, and also hurt, by the way her own son just lashed out at her._

_"Shinachiku Uzumaki!" Naruto yelled in anger, "Don't you dare yell at your mother like that! Now hand over the gem and apologize right now!"_

_"Make me."_

_The blonde adult's eyes widened in shock and all of the adults, particularly the women, all gasped at what they just heard._

_"Young man, what did you just say to me?!"_

_"You heard me, I said make me. I found this thing, not you! Its mine!"_

_"Kid," Sasuke interjected, "I don't know that the hell has gotten into you, but you'd better hand that thing over right now or—"_

_"Or what? You think I'm afraid of you Uncle Sasuke?_

_The Uchiha clan survivor narrowed his eyes in irritation. "You damn well should be!"_

_"Look Shina," Shino said putting his hand up, "you're obviously not well right now. Your parents are all just trying to help you. I think its for the best that you—"_

_"Shut up and mind our own business Shino-sensei! I found the gem! I brought it with me out of that cave! You've all seen what it can do! I have to keep it safe!_

_The boy then pulled out a kunai and pointed it at the entire group. "And I'll take down __**anybody**__ who takes it from me! Its mine! My own! My pre—"_

_The boy never got the opportunity to finish his sentence before he felt a pressure on the back of his neck. A sharp pressure that he had felt once before from his own godfather. But that was not the source of the blow this time._

_As the boy fell to the ground loosing consciousness, the adults could all see clearly that the one who did this to him was none other than Sarada...and she was clearly not happy with herself for having to do it._

_Sitting down on the grass not far from where the boy was being bound up, no one noticed as a single tear fell from Sarada's eyes and was soaked into the forest floor beneath their feet._

...

_"Mom! Please?! I'm sorry! God, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say all those horrible things! Please forgive me!"_

_"Then why did you say them?" Sasuke interrupted coldly, directing the boy's attention towards him._

_"It was the gem, all of it was the gem. W-When we were down there in the cave, the old man warned us that the power of the Chakra Gem may corrupt someone, even someone with a pure heart. When I held it..." The boy seemed lost in thought as everyone stared at him waiting for an explanation. "all that power, all that...There was something about all that power that made me feel special, made me feel big and important—"_

_"What it made you was a big fat jerk!"_

_Shinachiku turned his head to see the one who shouted at him...Sarada."_

_"G-Gomen Sarada...And thank you."_

_"For what?"_

_"For knocking me out before I did something that I would have regretted for the rest of my life."_

_The raven-haired girl with the red-trimmed glasses turned away from him, not willing to let him see how much it meant to her to hear his apology and, judging by the tone in his voice, to mean every word of it._

...

_Shinachiku stared at his parents and godparents as they engaged in conversation with the Kazekage in the distance. He did not notice Sarada coming up to him until she tapped him on the shoulder._

_"Hey, are you alright?"_

_"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Why?"_

_"'Cause you look like you're really interested in what the grown ups are talking about."_

_"Can you blame me?! This is Hanami we're talking about here?!" He then realized that he might have spoken a bit too harshly, "Gomen Sarada."_

_The girl merely shook it off, "Forget about it." She said nothing for a few seconds as she let the gravity of her friend's situation sink in. "You must really miss her, huh?"_

_He turned his head to face her, "Of course I do, she's my little sister."_

_"No, I mean you really miss her. I've seen how close you two are." He raised an eyebrow at what she just said, "You know what I mean!"_

_He relaxed and took deep breath before he spoke to her again. "Y'know, I was four years old when my parents told me one day that I was going to be big brother. I thought it sounded so cool, I mean, a sibling, another kid I can play with, train with, all that stuff. But when she was finally born, my dad spoke to me and told me something I'll never forget..."_

...

_Sarada stood there and listened to what her friend had told her. She took it all in, recognizing for the first time how deep their bond must really be...In truth, she kind of envied him. She never had any siblings and used to wonder what those kind of relationships were like. She figured that it meant two kids fighting and competing for their parent's attention all the time...but that wasn't the impression she was getting from Shinachiku at all._

_"Shina I...I never knew..."_

_"I promised her I'd never let anything happen to her. I promised! And now look what's happened!"_

_"None of that was your fault—"_

_"I don't care! This never would have happened to her if I'd been there!"_

_"Then you would have just gotten injected with that semen just like she had."_

_"You don't know that."_

_The girl narrowed her eyes. "You know what, your right, I don't. But I__do__know that standing here and blaming yourself for what happened to her, as if you're afraid she's going to blame you for any of it,__isn't__going to fix anything! So why don't you get your act together, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and lets go to Suna to get Hanami back?!"_

_The blonde-haired boy stared at the bifocaled girl impressively. Even in her meanest moments he still had to admit, she was right. Blaming himself for his sister's fate wasn't going to make her any better. And frankly, he should just be happy that she was still alive!_

_Without thinking, he leaped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Sarada in an emotional hug. The girl blushed deep red, naturally, but after hearing him say a quiet "Thank you," she accepted the hug and returned it..._

...

_"Where did you get that?"_

_Sarada could tell the voice in the boy's voice and rose her hands in defense. "Shina, listen to me—"_

"Where did you get it?!"

_The girl was taken aback. "Your mom trusted me to hold onto it. She was afraid of what might happen if you saw it again."_

_"So you lied to me."_

_"Weren't you listening?! I just said—"_

_"SHUT UP!"_

_The girl actually looked hurt, for a moment. After that, she narrowed her eyes in disgust. "See, this is why I hid it from you! Its affecting you! Its affecting both of us!"_

_"She's telling the truth Shinachiku," Kakashi spoke up. "I understand that you two have to keep the gem out of Taka's hands, but there has to be a way to do so without destroying yourselves."_

_Shinachiku could only listen and glare. He said nothing as his eyes drifted back to the glowing object in his old friend's hand. Its crimson radiance escaping through her fingers. The power. The power to destroy cities. The power of a god in the palm of your hand._

_Sarada could clearly feel where the boy's eyes were drifting and she suddenly got very defensive. Her grip tightened on the gem as she coldly glared at her old friend._

_Eyes reflected red, either with power or merely with the lust for power, as both Genin, consciously or unconsciously, reach for their weapon's pouches to pull out their kunai..._

_Konohamaru panicked. "Kids! Wait!"_

_Her sensei's words awoke something in the girl. The redness in her eyes disappeared and she managed to come back to her senses again, in spite of the gem still being held within her hands._

_"Shinachiku! Wait!"_

_It was too late. The boys screamed as he threw a kunai straight at the her head. Sarada barely dodged the blade, loosing a lock of her hair in the process._

_Dropping all pretense, Sarada was forced to tuck the gem back into her pocket as she got out her own kunai and charged her old friend. Both children and threw rapid punches and kicks at the other. Shinachiku tried to use his pressure point techniques to cut her off, but Sarada was ready for him this time and dodged the blows with ease. Sarada got out another kunai and tried to slash the boy right across the faces growling in fury while doing so, but Shinachiku grabbed the blade an tossed it away before anything further could be done with it._

_Shinachiku then got out his own kunai, the one his uncle had giving him for his birthday, and started slashing at his friend like a madman. Sadada then caught his arm and punched him right in the face, square in the nose actually._

_"AAAGGH!" Shinachiku recoiled from the clean shot as Sarada tried once again to the get him to focus._

_"Shina! Listen to me! You're going crazy! This isn't you! Stop for a second and look at what you are doing! Please!"_

_The boy could feel something, something coming back into focus within his own mind. It was like he had woken up again from a familiar dream, one that he had once before back in the woodland that lay between the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Sound._

_It was a voice that got him to focus again. Her voice._

_The red flash disappeared from his pupils and the boy was back to his normal self once again. "Wh-What? What happened?"_

_Kakashi folded his arms and scowled. "You found out where the Chakra Gem was and lost yourself again, that's what happened."_

_"Shina," Konohamaru added, "you attacked Sarada to get the gem back."_

_A wave of horrible guilt washed over the boy in that moment. He could only stare in horror at the girl, who looked back at him not in anger or resentment, but it pity. After all, she too had her taste of the Chakra Gem's power and she had aloud it to consumer her as well._

_That is why she was not surprised when she saw Shinachiku Uzumaki, one of the brightest, most talented boy's she had ever known, suddenly break down and cry right in front of her. She could hear his sobbing as tears of his own self-guilt fell upon the grass._

_No one did anything for several seconds, the two Jōnin not knowing shat to say to their young pupil in this the highly distressful moment._

_And so they were not the ones to do anything. Instead, Sarada Uchiha came forward, fell to her knees, and wrapped the boy in a tight hug. He was not able to resist. He wrapped his own arms around her as he cried into her shoulder._

_Over and over again he kept whispering into her ear "I'm sorry."_

_Her response was a simple, "Me too."_

...

_The kids all stopped to pay attention to Kakashi, anxious to hear whatever he had to say. "I know that whatever happens, good of bad...you parents would be proud of who." He closed his eyes and smiled beneath his mask. "I know the rest of us are."_

_With all of that said, everyone proceeded to go to their rooms. But before they split up, Shinachiku took his old friend and training partner to the side for a sort talk._

_"How are you doing?"_

_"Fine," Sarada said. "I guess you and I are as ready for this as we'll ever be huh?"_

_"I guess so..." The boy awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Um...listen, I know I already said this, but I'm really sorry about what happened with the chakra gem—"_

_"Me too." she responded a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm sorry I had to keep it from you, but you know that I only did it for—"_

_"I know, I know, you did it for my own good...I guess both of us kind of lost control didn't we?"_

_"Yeah..."_

_"By the way, thank you so much again for helping look after Hanami. She's looking so more better now!"_

_"Oh you're welcome, it was my pleasure Shina."_

_The atmosphere was awkward, really awkward, as the two kids continued to stand there in one another's presence. Neither one could think of anything else to say and, to be perfectly honest, they were starting to blush since this was the first time in a long time where the two of them had the opportunity to be in each other's company where it didn't involve training or this mission or having their minds fucked with by a magical glowing gem that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction._

_"Um, hey Sarada...?" Shinachiku asked awkwardly._

_"Yes?"_

_"Uh, I, I mean...I was just wondering if, y'know...after all of this is over and we rescue our parents and all if you'd, well..."_

_"If I'd what?"_

_Poor Shinachiku was blushing hard; if fact, he almost tugged at his collar. "Well, y'know, if you'd like it if you and me, umm...hung out sometime?"_

_Now it was the raven-haired girl's turn to blush. "Oh! Um? Sure I guess. Wh-What did you have in mind?"_

_"Ah, I don't know...Maybe, lunch and a movie or something? Just the two of us?"_

_"O-Okay, sure." Sarada continued to blush as she failed to realize that she was awkwardly playing with her hair. "I uh...I guess its a date?"_

_Now the boy really did tug at his collar as small beads of sweat started to appear on his brow. "Yeah...its a d-date."_

_Time itself seemed to stop as the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl found themselves staring into each other's eyes. Neither one of them knew what was coming over them as each of their eyes closed and they slowly started to lean in closer to once another..._

_"Shinachiku! What's taking you so long?"_

_"Sarada! You too!"_

_Konohamaru and Shizune's voices instantly snapped them out of their trance. Their eyes snapped back open again and they instantly pulled back, their face still stained with blushes._

_"S-Sorry about that!" Sarada apologized quickly._

_"S'okay!" he responded just as quickly._

_Sarada figured she had better get upstairs to her room before she got into any more trouble. But before she took the first step, she stopped, smirked to herself, and turned her head around to face the young blonde. "You know, I still haven't forgotten about that little bet we made down in that cave."_

_Shinachiku could feel his heart clench at the memory of exactly what she was referring to. 'Dang it! Even after all that's happened she still hasn't forgotten about that?!"_

_Sarada continued, "I do know a place in the village that serves great food and has a karaoke machine...Food for thought." Content to leave the poor blackmailed boy with that idea on his mind (and the memory of what she will tell his mother if he refused to sing for her), she went upstairs to her room._

* * *

**'NO!'**

The girl's mind finally snapped back to reality again. 'I **won't** let this happen! I **won't** let my friend turn into this monster! I **HAVE** save him! Whatever it takes!'

She stated at the growling form of the boy that was her oldest and dearest friend, and damn it, maybe something more... This creature standing before her now was _not_ Shinachiku Uzumaki!

No! The Shinachiku she knew was kind, smart, funny, a bit dopey at times, and he loved and respected everyone, especially his family. Whatever their bond was, it was unbreakable, She knew it!

'I have to save him...I **WILL** save him...I have to protect him! I HAVE too!'

Sarada closed her eyes as her steel will solidified itself. She was going to save him from this burden. She was more sure of that than she had ever been of anything in her life...

In a flash, her eyes opened once again. These eyes were not the same ones that had just closed. They were bright red with a thick black ring surrounding each iris. Within them was a second, fainter ring and a dark black pupil in the center. At the peak of the inner ring was a single black tomoe.

After all these years, at long last, to save and protect _him_, Sarada Uchiha's Sharingan had been awakened.

* * *

Well, there you go, another chapter in the bag. And yes, at long last, Sarada has awakened her Sharingan!

Now, I know what a lot of you must be thinking: "Hey! The whole chapter was just a punch of flashbacks to scenes from your previous chapters!" I know, I know, I apologize for this, obviously, not turning out as one of my more original chapters. I do apologize for that, but there is a reason for it.

You see, I did not originally intend for the chapter to follow that structure, including more plot lines than just the Shinachiku and Sarada plot line. But as I was writing it, I had the vision in my head of Sarada's Sharingan finally activating, and I realized very quickly that that moment simply wouldn't have the same impact if it wasn't saved for the very end. Furthermore, I wanted to make absolutely sure that you guys understood what their relationship has been up to this point and why she would be so determined to save him from what he has turned into. The activation of a Sharingan is supposed to come from a profound emotional moment, just like in the last chapter and in true anime fashion, I realized that the best way to ensure that was through flashbacks.

One way or another, I will be including more original content next time. I know that this may not have been my best chapter, but I hope you all enjoyed it and, hopefully, found it emotional too.

Until next time, see ya!


	48. Chapter 46--Gods and Monsters

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Thank you all once again for your continued patience with me, but this time there was a mix of some significant appointments and a tragedy that occurred within my family. I hope you all can understand.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 46: Gods and Monsters**

In the forest just outside of the besieged village of Konoha, four colossal beasts loomed over the trees and glared one another down. There were three creatures on one side and one on the other.

One of these great beasts was a enormous toad, one red in color and with thick purple markings around his eyes and with think purple lips. The toad was smoking a cigarette, wore a necklace with a single large bead, and carried a giant tantō sword at his side. The toad stood only 10 cm shorter than his own father the Chief Toad, who himself towered above the forests themselves.

To the left of the toad sat an enormous serpent, one blue in color with light green eyes; in his snout the snake had large infrared-sensitive receptors.

To the right of the toad sat an enormous slug, as tall as a the largest building in the village. The slug was colored white with three blue streaks that ran vertically down the middle and side of its body from its head and tapering off at its tail. Its optical tentacles had a slight tint of grey to them and it also had two sensory tentacles on either side of its mouth.

On top of each of the three beasts stood each of the three great shinobi whom had summoned them here. Atop the toad stood a grown man with blonde hair who's body looked like it had been consumed with golden flames an was covered in ritualistic black markings. Atop the snake stood another grown man, this one with raven black hair and who's eyes were currently mismatched; his right eye was red with "Straight Tomoe" spread along the edge of the irises, taking the form of three intersecting ellipses, while his left eye was purple with six tomoe, taking a familiar but dangerous pattern of a ringed ripple that spread over the eyeball. Atop the slug was a pink-haired woman with purple markings running down her face and her arms.

Before this legendary trio stood another beast and its master. It was a gigantic scorpion with pincers the size of buildings and three tails complete with stingers that were poised to strike. Atop its head was an old man with black hair.

"Hmm..." the toad said as it took in a puff of smoke from his enormous cigarette, then blew the smoke out its mouth. "Hey Naruto! Its about time you called! I've been waiting to hear from you ever since that business in the Land of Whirlpools. How's your son?"

"Yes," the snake said to its own master. "Is your daughter safe Lord Sasuke?"

Naruto answered for the three of them. "That's why I called you back here old buddy. Shina came out of it fine, but...things have come up and now Shina and Sarada are in trouble in the Valley of the End."

"Lady Sakura, why are the children over there when you are here defending he village?"

"Its a long story Lady Katsuyu," Sakura explained, "but right now my son is not himself and both his and Sarada's lives are in mortal danger."

"But first," Sasuke interrupted as he pointed forward, "We need to deal with Uragi and his friend first."

The toad moved his cigarette around in his mouth as he rubbed his chin with his fin. "Well I'll be...Kuīnsasori, the scorpion queen herself."

"Gamakichi," Naruto spoke to his summon and old friend, "you know what this thing is?"

"By reputation only. Few have ever met her in person before, and I've certainly never heard of any ninja ever being able to summon her in battle before."

"Indeed," the snake agreed. "Lord Sasuke, this creature is extremely dangerous and bows to no man. Her hatred of humanity is even greater than Lord Manda's was."

"Aoda's right," Gamakichi confirmed. "The things old man Uragi must have done to get a summoning contract with _her_...Yeesh! I don't ever want to think about it!"

"I don't care why she's here _or_ what Uragi did to bring her here!" Sasuke shouted impatiently. "All I want to know is whether or not the three of you can defeat her?"

"It will be difficult my lord," Aoda said to Sasuke. "Kuīnsasori has strength rivaling the boss summons and her pincers can crush entire buildings with one grip. Worse still are her three stingers."

"Katsuyu," Sakura asked as she listened, "her stingers, are they poisonous?"

"Very much so m'lady. The scorpion queen's venom is lethal to all who become injected with it. The venom is so powerful that even my healing cannot hold off the side effects for very long."

Gamakichi blew out another puff of smoke before he took over the conversation. "On a full sized summon like us it would be an excruciatingly painful experience that might kill us in a few days, unless Katsuyu here can help with the healing process perhaps. But on a human...well, the poison would kill you instantly, and that's if those stingers don't split you in half."

"But Kurama—?"

"Can't be counted on to save you Naruto. Jinchūriki or no, the Nine-Tails can only heal you from so much."

Naruto sweat dropped as he looked ahead of him. "Terrific..."

Uragi stared his enemies down. He needed to be done with these fools, and then he needed to reclaim the Mind Gem from his former minion or else there would be hell to pay. The master would not be pleased...

As the old man quickly bandaged the hand he had cut to enact his summoning contract, the great beast that he had called forth glanced up at him with its tiny, black eyes.

"Uragi, you old fool! What have I told you about summoning me?!"

"Forgive me Lady Kuīnsasori, you know that neither I nor Taka would summon you unless it were of absolute importance—"

"Silence!" The Scorpion Queen raised her enormous pincers above her head and straight up to the old man's face. "I ought to snap your head clean off right now human. Your carcass would be great meat for my subjects."

Uragi actually swallowed a lump in his throat. "Y-Yes m'lady."

It was only after making her threat that Kuīnsasori looked ahead of herself and saw the three opponents that were before her. "Well what do we have here? The Slug Queen, the Snake Warrior, and the Chief Toad's brat. All lined up to challenge the likes of me."

The beast spoke demandingly of her summoner. "Uragi! Who are these humans that stand atop of their heads? These humans who dare to challenge me?!"

"Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno m'lady."

"I see...Uragi, I'll be willing to help you this one time. But if you waste my time with something this trivial again, it will be _you_ whom I kill next. Do I make myself clear?!"

"Yes m'lady."

Sakura looked at the giant creature before them and could tell that things were about to get very ugly, very fast. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Yeah..." Naruto agreed. "Gamakichi, I know I'm asking a lot of you, but I need you to cut down the scorpion so I can get to Uragi. I'm going to steal the green chakra gem he's carrying so we can go to wherever they sent our kids."

"Alright pal," Gamakichi agreed, "but if any of those stingers get me then _you're_ going to have to explain it to my father." The toad chuckled as he heard the grown man in the golden chakra swallow a lump in his throat. He reached for his canto sword and readied to draw it for battle.

"Aoda," Sasuke spoke to his partner, "I need you to sneak past the enemy's defenses and hold her still for Naruto and the toad to make their attack."

"As you command Lord Sasuke."

"Lady Katsuyu," Sakura said, "our job is going to be healing and backup. I need you to provide assistance against this enemy and once this battle is over, travel back to the village to start healing the wounded."

"As you wish m'lady."

"Well," Gamakichi said as he drew his weapon, "are we just going to stand here and talk all day or are we going to do this?"

Time stood still. The four beasts and their masters stared one another down. Each was waiting for the other one to make the first move.

"Gamakichi! Go!"

At Naruto's behest, the Toad Prince made it's great leap into the air, it's blade shining in the setting sun.

"Kuīnsasori! Strike now!"

The Scorpion Queen made and move to the strike the toad with one of its tails.

"TOGUNE TOOTH STICKY ACID!"

Katsuyu spat from its mouth an acidic mucus that hit Kuīnsasori directly in the side of its body. As the beast was forced to turn away in agony, this gave the third of Team 7 the opening they needed.

"Aoda! Go!"

The snake slithered across the landscape at remarkable speed. It was not long at all before the snake was at its destination already and coiled itself tightly around the scorpion.

"Release me fool!" Kuīnsasori made the move to strike at the snake with one of its stingers, but fortunately, that was exactly the moment when the plan pulled through.

"AAAGGGHHH!"

Gamakichi came down from his height, and slashed at the giant scorpion with his tantō sword...It did little effect.

"What the hell?"

"Hahaha!" Uragi laughed evilly. "Fools! Kuīnsasori's hide is as strong as steel. None of the your attacks can possibly hope to penetrate her!"

Sasuke mumbled to himself, "Well crap..."

* * *

'I...I can see...I can see Shina's chakra...'

Sarada felt herself becoming overwhelmed. Her new Sharingan eyes allowed her to see more sharply than she ever had been able to before. At the moment she could see the flow of her dear friend's natural chakra, which was blue in color, was being suppressed. In its place, all she could see was the fierce, enormous source of chakra that she did not need her new eyes to see. It was the red, bubbling shroud of Kurama's chakra.

'This doesn't make any sense! The only way a jinchūriki can pass it's tailed beast's power onto its offspring is if they were a pregnant female. How can Kurama be acting through Shinachiku if he's sealed inside Uncle Naruto?'

**"RRRRROOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!"**

Shinachiku's latest roar was enough to snap the girl out of her train of thought. It was just in time to dodge another swipe from the boy's chakra arms. Sarada leapt out of the way, but she nevertheless felt a sharp sting on her leg, near her ankle.

'Damn!' she cursed herself as she grabbed her ankle. 'Dad warned me that once my Sharingan was awakened I might throw my timing off. I need to be careful or else I could overstress my body trying to keep up with this new reaction time.'

Using some limited healing that she had learned from her mother, Sarada stood back up and steadily focused her chakra into her eyes as she closed them.

'Even with all three tomoe, dad waned me that the Nine-Tail's movements were extremely difficult to see coming...But it doesn't matter! I need to protect him...I need to free him...I need to save him...I'm the only one who can.'

Sarada's eyes snapped open again and one of them was different than it was before. Now her right eye had two tomoe within it while her right eye still only possessed one. It would seem that Sarada's determination to free her friend and her late bloomer status within her clan had allowed her Sharingan to evolve at a more rapid pace than normal.

'Focus...focus...Alright! I can do this! Wait!'

One slight twitch of the boy's muscles. That was all it took to now alert her that Shinachiku was about to launch another strike against her. Unlike earlier when she found her self scraped on the ankle, this time she was able to dodge the assault without any major difficulty.

But Shinachiku was through playing these silly games. With another roar, he at last moved from his spot and charged at the girl, fangs gaping and claws drawn. He took a pose that Sarada was able to recognize. He was coming in for a taijutsu combination that Burandon's dad had taught him once. He'd demonstrated it to her while they were training on the way back to the village.

"FRONT LOTUS!"

He was not very well experienced in this move yet, since he had never dared to risk opening any of his Eight Gates, but that did not matter. He initiated the first part of the move and that was all she needed.

"SHARINGAN!"

She scanned the boy's oncoming movements and was quickly able to adapt her own taijutsu technique to it. She had seen her father perform this move in battle before but could never fully master it herself. Now here she was, learning it the exact way he had, and now it seemed so easy to her.

Reacting quickly, she leapt into the air and kicked the boy out of the way before leaping back in his direction for her own attack.

"LION COMBO!"

She kicked the Version 1 demi-jinchūriki back up into the air and shadowed him from beneath. This was called the Shadow of the Dancing Leaf.

"This is for your own good Shina."

Shinachiku attempted to counterattack by spinning himself around and rose again, but Sarada took full advantage of this. She used her hand to spin the boy around in mid air and then immediately landed a powerful kick directly into his side. She then roundhoused him by flipping herself around to hover over him before she landing one last kick straight into the boy's stomach right as he made contact with the ground.

Sarada needed to catch her breath; it was her first time using a copied jutsu after all. But she was disheartened when the possessed boy was already getting up.

"Is...Is that all you've got?!"

"Hardly."

Shinachiku shot out his chakra arm again, and Sarada used all of her ninja speed to leap into the air to dodge all of his movements. The chakra arm weaved through the air after her in every possible direction, there seemed to be no limit to its range.

"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"

Sarada fired a gigantic wave of flame from her mouth and while it was enough to block the chakra arm from its attack, as the wave of flame washed over the boy himself, the shroud of Kurama's chakra protected him from virtually any damage.

'I figured as much. I need to find a way to snap him out of this. Fast!'

With his hateful expression never leaving his face, Shinachiku put his hands in a familiar position. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Ten identical clones of Shinachiku puffed into existence around him, all of them angry, and all of them equally cloaked in the fox's power.

Sarada's Sharingan could clearly see the distribution of chakra among the clones and realized that this potential opening was really only another big problem for herself. 'Damn! I'd hoped that splitting the fox's chakra among his clones would make him weaker, but he just keeps drawing more and more of it the longer this goes on!'

She had no time to waste. The clones all punched the air as one, sending a ten-way blast of power straight at her. It was too much for her to take, Sharingan or no, and she tumbled violently over and over until she had been pushed to the back of the devastated valley.

The ten clones broke off into groups of two, one clone focusing their chakra into their hand, the other one rapidly spinning the chakra from all sides as it was compressed into a familiar glowing sphere.

'Five Rasengans?! I couldn't possibly—AGH!'

Sarada's ankle was acting up again. It must have taken extra damage when she was pushed backwards from their last attack. She'd thought she'd healed it, but she just wasn't her mother or her Aunt Sakura.

'My movement is stunted like this! If even one of those Kurama-enhanced Rasengans hits me I'm finished! ...I guess I have no choice. God I hope this works.'

The clones finished preparing their jutsu. Five of the clones dissipated in exhaustion, while the remaining five each held their attack in their hands.

"UZUMAKI RASENGAN BARRAGE!"

The five Shinachiku clones charged at her with their chakra tails flapping in the wind and the five glowing balls of death thrust forward to strike her...

"GENJUTSU: SHARINGAN!"

The clones all stopped. Time seemed to stop around them. The world turned black with their own bodies the only things present. Sarada herself, their target, had completely disappeared from their sight.

"W-What the?!"

"Where is she?!"

"What's going on?!"

"What is this?! A genjutsu?!"

"Find her! Now—AGH!"

Some invisible force had struck the last of the clones to speak. Worse yet, it felt like someone had just punched a massive hole straight through his shoulder. Looking to his right, he could see he was right. There was a giant, gaping hole in its shoulder.

"AAAAAGGHHH!"

The clone looked up quickly enough to see his fellow shadow clones brought to their knees in a similar way. Even with the fox's chakra healing them, the pain was too much. One by one, each of the clones faded out of existence, until only one remained.

"What...What is this...?"

...

Back in the real world, Sarada Uchiha was huffing as she held one of her father's signature techniques, the Chidori, in her hand, its electric current flailing about as it made the sound of dozens of chirping birds. The last, lingering vapors of five dissipated shadow clones floated around her before dispelling altogether.

'That was close Sarada! You're lucky that those clones weren't prepared for a surprise genjustu or else you wouldn't have had the opening to take out all five of them at once.'

The real Shinachiku glared in anger at this twist. He reabsorbed their portions of Kurama's chakra back into himself.

"Shina! I know you can hear me! Please! This isn't you! The chakra gem is making you so angry that its turning you into something you're not! Don't let it control you!"

"You dare?! You DARE say that to me?!"

Shinachiku punched the air again, sending another blast of power aimed straight at the girl. But this time it was only one instead of ten, so her new Sharingan abilities enabled her to leap out of the way of the blast, which devastated the valley behind her.

'This is bad. I don't know if I have enough left in me to handle performing another genjutsu so soon after getting my Sharingan.'

Coming back down, she tried pleading with him again. "Shina, listen to me, please?! I'm sorry for what I said! I really am! It was the gem! It messed with my mind, just like its doing to you! I don't know how Kurama is acting through you, but I think the anger you feel from the gem being near you has something to do with it! You need to get yourself under control!"

"SHUT UP!"

Another explosive pulse shot out from the boy. Sarada had to cross her eyes over her face as she used her chakra to anchor her feet to the ground.

'This can't keep going on. I have to end this...'

She could see that the boy had had enough. He had made three more clones, one of whom worked to keep the chakra he was gathering into his palm under control, the second adding a change in chakra nature, and the final clone was adding something else to the technique.

Sarada knew exactly what was coming. She had seen it with her own two eyes and she knew full well that there was only one jutsu in her arsenal that could possibly hold its own against it.

'Forgive me Shina...' A single tear fell down the Uchiha girl's Sharingan eye as she focused her chakra and felt the familiar singe of lighting forming around her arm, followed by that chirping sound she had come to know so well.

The boy's sphere of chakra was contained into the Rasengan, but then the jutsu sprouted four small white blade-like protrusions from its center, resembling a small fūma shuriken...And then the third clone finished its job. The Wind Release: Rasengan changed shape once again and lit itself on fire!

Sarada felt the lightning surrounding her arm as it too caught aflame. The chirping of the Chidori was mixed with the sound of a burning pyre.

The two friends rushed at one another at full gallop, their jutsu outstretched at one another.

"WIND AND FIRE RELEASE: RASENGAN!"

"ROAR! SCORCHING CHIDORI!"

Time slowed to a crawl as the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl raised their jutsu. The world went white as everything became engulfed in scorching hot flame...

...

* * *

"Damn it!"

Naruto cursed aloud when Gamakichi's blade did noting to penetrate the great scorpion's hide. He stood there racking his brain to come up with another solution, but Kuīnsasori was not willing to wait as it made its move to send two of its tails at both the toad and the snake.

"TOGUNE TOOTH STICKY ACID!"

Katsuyu shot out another two globs of acid that targeted the scorpion's tails, causing her to yelp in pain.

"BLACK RELEASE: KAGUTSUCHI!"

The familiar black flames appeared again as Sasuke used his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to engulf the beast and its master in their unquenchable heat.

"AAAAHHH! The burning!"

Kuīnsasori screamed in agony as the flames engulfed her on all sides. Naruto used the opening to create a shadow clone to spin and compress his chakra while he focused on gathering black and white chakra into a powerful sphere in the palm of his hand.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Take cover!"

Both of them knew what was coming and they were not going to risk getting caught in the blast radius. Sakura was quick to give the orders to her summon. "Lady Katsuyu! Protect us!"

"Yes m'lady."

The great slug divided itself into four separate beings and absorbed Sasuke and Sakura into one of its forms. Another moved away from the battle and came to the feet of both Naruto's parents, who had resigned themselves to merely watching the battle this whole time.

"Minato," Kushina said, "we need to do something to help Naruto."

"Lady Kushina," the Katsuyu clone said, "Lady Sakura had ordered me to protect you and Lord Fourth. Please, we haven't much time."

Minato came up with a plan. "Kushina, you let Katsuyu absorb you. I'm going to help our son."

"Like hell you are! He's my boy too!"

"I knew you'd say that, that's why I want you to listen to me very carefully..."

Back on the battlefield, Gamakichi was already being absorbed into the giant slug even as Naruto was still atop of his head gathering chakra for his next attack. "Hey Naruto! Whatever you're doing, you'd better hurry up!"

"Hang on, I'm almost done!"

Uragi had grown tired of this and decided it was time to make his own move to end this battle. "LIGHTNING STYLE: THUNDER SPEAR!"

Like some god from an ancient mythology, the old man hurled a spear of electricity from his finger directly at the blonde hero...

"FLYING THUNDER GOD!"

With a body flicker, a grown man enveloped in a dark golden chakra cloak appeared out of nowhere and caught the electric jutsu with an outstretched chakra arm. He then tossed it right back at the old man, who was alert enough to dodge his own jutsu.

"Dad?"

Minato tuned his head and smiled. "Hey son, hope you don't mind a little extra help?"

"Uh...no, that's okay...But dad! I'm about to use the—"

"I know what you're going to do, and we're going to make it easier for you."

_"We?"_

Naruto had not noticed that one of the four Katsuyu clones had sneaked its way behind Kuīnsasori's body, which was still being bound by Aoda. The snake could tell what was coming, but at the moment he was the only one holding the enemy in place for the attack, so he could not afford to move from where he was.

The great beast, even within her constraints, raised all three of her tails with their stingers filled with venom and poised to strike and each of the summons and their masters.

"TRIPLE DEATH STING!"

...

But then, something unexpected happened. Ten chains of adamantine burst out of the Katsuyu clone's soft, spongy body and wrapped themselves around the Scorpion Queen. Aoda knew that this was his opportunity, so he quickly unwrapped himself from his enemy before the chains took full hold, and then he allowed himself to be absorbed into the fourth and final Katsuyu clone.

"AAAGGGHHH! Fools! You dare entrap me! I will tear you apart!"

The scorpion's vow of revenge fell on death ears as within the Katsuyu clone, a woman with long, crimson hair and golden chakra chains shooting out of her body was smiling to herself. 'Naruto...go get him!'

Back in the outside world, the younger blonde Hokage was surprised to say the least. "Mom?!"

"Yep!" Minato confirmed. "She's giving you an opening son, so are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

Naruto's shadow clone dispelled as he was left with a small black orb of immense power in the palm of his hand.

Minato quickly created a chakra arm from Kurama's Yin half. "Now's your chance son! Go!"

Naruto leaped at full speed as Gamakichi was fully enveloped within the slug clone. His father's chakra arm grabbed hold and flung the Orange Hokage around multiple times before he finally threw him at full speed and force like some sort of Fastball Special!

Letting out a rebel yell with the black ball in his hand, he glared at Uragi with determination as he slammed the ball into the Taka leader's chest.

"SUPER MINI-TAILED BEAST BALL!"

The explosion was massive...catastrophic...seemingly apocalyptic. The blast radius could be seen rising well above the forest...

* * *

Back in the village, the rest of Naruto's friends were still in the midst of fighting off the Taka double agents. But the fighting all stopped at the size and sound of the explosion coming from the forest.

Ino stared in shock. "Sai...Are they...?"

The white-skinned Anbu captain examined the scene before him. "I hope so."

"Hanami, you stay close to us so you don't get hurt...Hanami...?"

Ino looked all around her, even as the battle for their village's soul was being fought. But try though she might, she could not find the girl anywhere.

**"HANAMI?!"**

Shikamaru and the others were cut off by their friend's sudden scream. Chōji spoke for the rest of them and he cupped his hands around his ears. "Ouch! What the hell is your problem Ino?!"

"What's my problem?! **What's my problem?!** Poor Hanami's gone missing again and Sakura's going to murder me if anything happens to her! **THAT'S** my problem!"

Shikamaru slapped his own forehead in annoyance. "Ugh! Weren't _you_ the one Sakura trusted to keep her safe? _Great job_ you did Ino! Man, this is troubles—" An intense, bloodthirsty death glare from his former teammate was enough to shut the Hokage's adviser up. "Never mind."

"Friends! Naruto and Sakura will be most furious with us if we fail to reclaim Hanami in time!"

"Lee's right," Shino agreed. "We need to figure out where she is and fast."

Hinata and Neji focused their chakra into their eyes before they each snapped them back open again. "BYAKUGAN!"

With their enhanced vision, the two Hyūga cousins scanned the entire village, searching for any traces of the girl's chakra.

"Wait!" Neji chimed up. "I see her!"

"Where is she?" Kiba asked his in law.

"She's running back through the forest...She's going back to her family."

"What?" Ino panicked. "We have to go get her!"

"Guys!" Karin shouted for everyone to hear, her sensory abilities working to full effect. "I really hate say it, but I think we've got other things to worry about first."

"The red head's right, you're not going anywhere." The leader of a giant squad of Anbu stood before the Konoha 11 and their allies, including their children who were fighting together mere meters away.

Tenten sweat dropped in frustration as she got out her weapons again. "Seriously, where are all these guys coming from?"

It was clear that Hanami's fate was in her own hands for the moment, because these Taka agents weren't going to let any of them go without a fight.

* * *

Hanami Uzumaki was rushing to get back to where her parents and her Uncle Sasuke were fighting her grandma and grandpa and the bad man Uragi. She could not leave them. She'd already lost her oniichan and Sarada, she could not stand to be left alone. She knew that her Aunt Ino and all her friends would all be mad at her, but she didn't care, she needed to do this.

But then the seven-year old girl stopped in terror at the tremendous explosion that rose above the trees. It was larger an more horrific than any explosion she'd ever seen. It reminded her of those scary stories her mommy told her about the red chakra gem her brother found in the Land of Whirlpools. She wasn't there to see it, but if her mom was right, then that shiny red jewel could give anyone that held it the power to blow up an entire village all at once!

'Mommy...Daddy...oniichan...please don't leave me...'

* * *

The debris was finishing falling down as the force of the explosion died out. Naruto and Minato were left standing there in a solid wall of smoke and dust.

"Damn! This dust!" Naruto cursed. "Dad?! Are you alright?!"

"I thought you could sense me?" Minato shouted from a distance away.

"I just wanted to hear your voice!" Naruto shouted back.

"Yes son I'm fine!"

"Katsuyu?"

One of the slug clones let its voice be heard at the sound of her master's husband's call. "Yes Lord Hokage?"

"Release Gamakichi please? I need his help with something."

"As you wish."

The clone broke itself apart into hundreds of smaller clones as the Toad Prince was freed from his confinement.

"Whew!" Gamakichi gasped upon being freed. "Man it gets hard to breath in there!"

"Gama!" Naruto shouted to get the toad's attention after jumping back on top of his head. "You okay old friend?"

"Yeah I'm good. What do you need?"

"Think you can help clear away some of the smoke and debris so we can see what happened?"

"No problem. Hang on!"

The giant toad leaped into the air with its summoner riding his head as it made some quick hand sings. "WATER STYLE: STARCH SYRUP GUN!"

Gamakichi kneaded his chakra along with natural energy he had been storing, and converted it into a massive blanket of high-viscosity water inside of his mouth. He then spat the tidal wave of water outwards with an incredible amount of force. The water spat out with the force of a high-speed projectile of monstrous volume. It was so much water that it easily proved enough to drench the entire forest.

* * *

"Huh? What's that?" Hanami heard the rumblings of something coming from deep within the woods. Of course, she quickly panicked when she saw the colossal tidal wave coming at her. "AAAAGGGHHH!"

Taking the best shelter she could, the poor girl was forced to hold to hold her breath and hang onto a tree as the fast moving blast of water washed over her, and then cleared away almost as soon as it came.

Letting go of the tree, the poor girl's clothes were obviously soaking wet now, and she wasn't terribly happy that the water felt extra thick and sticky...and it smelled a little bit too. "Ew! Gross!"

* * *

The tidal wave had washed over the forest and soaked into the earth and plants. The smoke and dust was clearing up. It looked as though the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball had done its job. The enemy was defeated. The day was won...Or so it seemed.

"WE DID IT!" Naruto proclaimed aloud in his signature loud, overenthusiastic way. But then he quickly calmed down and found himself panting pretty hard as his Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode was starting to loose some of its glow.

"Hey Naruto, are you okay?"

"Huh? Y-Yeah Gamakichi I'm alright." He lied. 'Dang it! I need to get to Shinachiku and Sarada soon. And it not just for their sake either. The longer and longer Shina keeps this bond going between him and Kurama, the more and more power he drains from me...'

The Katsuyu clones each broke apart to the release their charges. Sakura and Sasuke each let out a gasp for fresh air after they each were set free, and so did Kushina as she dispelled her chakra chains. Aoda did not show any visible reaction, but he was clearly relieved to be free at last.

"Lady Katsuyu," Sakura spoke to the thousands of miniature slug clones that had once been one of the four full size clones of the Great Slug. "Arigato Lady Katsuyu for protecting us. Now please return to the village to provide healing for the wounded."

"Yes m'lady—"

"Wait!"

Sasuke's outburst caught everyone off guard. Sakura spoke for everyone. "What's wrong Sasuke?"

The Uchiha could see clearly through the remaining smoke and dust. "We're not finished yet."

Naruto stared at his best friend for a moment before his face contorted in horror. He could sense it too. He recognized that chakra anywhere. "No way..."

The final traces of dust had washed away, and what they revealed was monstrous. There was a massive figure stepping up towards them, a gigantic arachnid with enormous claws and three deadly tails armed with three lethal stingers. Standing atop the creature's head was an old man with a solemn expression. The Scorpion Queen and the traitorous Taka leader were alive and well. They seemed to be approaching from some distance away, and both enemies had barely a scratch on them.

"H-How...?" Naruto asked in shock. "How could they...?"

Uragi laughed manically for all of them to hear before answering the question. "HAHAHA! For once I have to give you credit Uzumaki! If the situation were any different you likely would have finished me. But fortunately..." the old man reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar green object, "...I still had a bit of insurance left on me."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and clenched his one remaining fist. 'Damn! The Space Gem! He must have used it at the last second to teleport himself and his summon far enough to avoid Naruto's jutsu.'

"Its a good thing I drained all of the chakra from the Mizukage's bodyguard, otherwise I would not have had enough chakra left to use this."

Sakura hung her head. "What can we do? As long as he has that chakra gem there's no way we can beat him."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Minato's sudden outburst caused the three former teammates to snap their heads in the former kage's direction. Naruto spoke for the lot of them. "What are you talking about dad?"

"Didn't your friend the Kazekage tell you? The Space Gem has an Achilles' heal: using it consumes a massive amount from a person's natural chakra reserves, nearly half of a person's daily chakra supply each time. That means that's its essentially only good for two teleportations per day."

The gears in Sakura's brain quickly caught on to what her father-in-law was trying to say. "And since he absorbed that bodyguard's chakra he's already used it twice."

Now Naruto had caught on. "And that means most of Uragi's chakra must be gone by now!"

Sasuke drew his sword and pointed it straight at the old man. "And that means this battle is over Uragi. Without any more chakra, you're defenseless."

The old man gritted his teeth. 'No...NO! It cannot end like this! I've waited too long! I've come too far! I will NOT allow these usurpers to win! Uzumaki! Uchiha! These false idols need to pay! This world NEEDS to be reborn anew! Taka must WIN!'

But what more could he possibly do. It was true, using the Space Gem twice now has cost him nearly all of his chakra. His only possible hope was to find another source from which he could get more...

...And that's when he got an idea. An awful idea. Uragi Rimonō got a wonderful, _awful_ idea. "You know something Uchiha, you're absolutely right."

Less than a second later, Uragi made a jet at full ninja speed off of Kuīnsasori's head and towards his target...Kushina! The fiery red head was in his sights and soon, she would be his salvation.

"NO!" Minato saw where Uragi was going and did not waste a second in chasing after him. There were no special kunai planted near his wife's current location so that meant using the Flying Thunder God technique was out of the question and his own natural speed would have to suffice...Unfortunately, the Scorpion Queen caught on to the attack and was actually quick enough to capture the Yellow Flash in her gigantic pincers.

"DAD!"

Naruto watched as the giant beast flung one of her tails directly at his father, fully intent on making him her latest prey...But that was when Sakura leaped in, grabbing hold of the scorpion's tail with her monstrous strength, holding it within millimeters of piercing her father-in-law's skin.

"GO! I've got this!"

His wife's shout out prompted Naruto to make a leap after Uragi. Sasuke had already beaten him to it though. The Uchiha survivor leaped in front of his friend's mother with his sword drawn and his Chidori flowing down the length of the blade.

The old man charged at full speed but Sasuke was able to impale him on his blade, electrifying him as the body fell the to ground.

"Lady Kushina," Sasuke said with a bow and while making a polite gesture with his one remaining hand. "I don't believe we've met formally but I'm—"

"You're Mikoto's boy, Sasuke."

"Umm...yes. How did you know?"

"Your mother and me were good friends, I met you when you were just a cute little baby."

The usually cool and dead serious Uchiha actually blushed. "Well...thanks. I don't—"

A sudden poofing sound cut off Sasuke's speech. The puff of smoke cleared and revealed a small log where Uragi's body used to be.

'Shit! A substitution!' "AAAGGGHHH!"

Sasuke felt one of the old man's electric jutsu shocking him as he went in for the kill at top speed. He grabbed Kushina by the throat and started sucking the chakra right out of her body.

"Mmm...Even I have to admit that you Uzumaki folk have some amazingly strong chakra. Even without the Nine-Tails you're still making me fell better than—OOF!"

Uragi was cut off by a super hard punch, maybe the hardest left hook he'd ever felt, knocking him away from Kushina, who grasped her own throat as she struggled to catch her breath.

Naruto had laid the Kurama-enhanced smack down on Uragi as he slammed him up against a tree. The tree than broke as Naruto used his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode to rocket himself through the forest while, with a rage that just barely held the Nine-Tails at bay, Naruto assaulted the old man's skull over and over again!

"**YOU!** HOW **DARE** YOU GO AFTER MY **MOTHER?!**"

Punch after furious punch was leveled at the fallen village leader before he slammed Uragi into a hill within the woods, destroying it. Even then, Naruto still did not left up his psychotic assault.

"YOU SICK, DISGUSTING, USELESS PIECE OF GARBAGE! I'LL RIP YOU'RE FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

It looked like the old man, beaten and battered into a bloodied mess, was down for the count. But then he started laughing.

"WHAT?! What's so goddamned funny?!"

"Hehehehehe...Go ahead Naruto, finish it." He coughed some blood onto himself before he continued. "You call yourself the Child of Prophecy, a symbol of hope and peace for the whole world...Go ahead, finish me, let them see you for the fraud you are."

"You..."

"You know I'm right. The anger, the hate, its all still there. You're no hero, you're just a fraud. Why keep pretending? What's one more body amongst foundations? Go on, do it."

Naruto glared at the old man he was looming over with pure hate, but he hesitated to act.

Uragi, however, was nowhere near as patient. **"DO IT!"**

That was the outburst it took to make Naruto snap. With a scream of rage, he rapidly prepared a Rasenshiruken in his prosthetic hand, a technique that would tear this traitorous sack of garbage to pieces...

"DADDY!"

But he stopped. Naruto stopped his attack and looked in horror at he source of the voice. His only daughter was right there. Hanami was staring at her father with tears running down her face. Never before had she ever seen her father so angry, so fully prepared to go in for the kill. She did not like it at all.

"Daddy, please don't..."

"H-Hanami? W-W-Why are you here?"

"Daddy, you're scaring me..."

Naruto could feel the blood draining from his face. There was a pool of water near his feet, a holdover from Gamakichi's technique from earlier. In the puddle's reflection, he could see the sheer anger that was visible on his face. It shocked even him.

'Wha...What have I...? She's right. This isn't me. If I end it like this I'm just as much of a monster as Uragi is...'

"NO!" Naruto said aloud. "No! I'm not going to end it like this." He looked down at the traitor beneath him and held him in a death grip. "You're going to pay for what you've done, for _everything_ you've done. But you're going to be doing it from the deepest, darkest, dankest jail cell we can find for you. You're going to have whatever remains of your sad excuse for a life to think about all you've done and how it all failed so spectacularly. Am I clear?"

Uragi glared up at the man he hated with a burning passion before he merely said "Yes."

'Good." Naruto then dropped Uragi back down onto the muddy ground before turning back to face his daughter, his Nine-Tailed Chakra form powering down and his body returning to normal.

"D-Daddy?"

He opened his eyes at her to reveal those friendly blue orbs she knew so well, and showed her that goofy grin that never failed to brighten up her day. "Its okay sweetheart, daddy's alright now."

The girl's eyes lit up and she smiled big and wide as she ran into her father's arms. "Daddy!"

The two of them shared a loving hug, but sadly that hug was cut off when Naruto sensed four very familiar chakra signatures were watching them. "How long have you all been standing there?"

"Long enough dobe."

Sakura was wiping a tear out of her eye at her husband's selfless act of mercy and the beautiful scene she'd seen between him an their daughter. Sasuke smirked arrogantly, as was normal for him. Minato had his arm wrapped around Kushina; both were smiling in pride. All of them had now returned back to normal from there power up forms; Sakura's seal was restored, Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan and Rinnegan were deactivated, and Minato's own Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode was deactivated like his son's was.

"What happened with that giant scorpion?" Naruto asked of his wife.

"Oh, lets just say I gave her a good reason not to leave the deserts in the Land of Wind's again anytime soon."

Naruto sweat dropped and shuddered in fear. 'Yep, like I always say, Sakura can be _really_ scary when she tries to be...'

"Katsuyu split itself up into hundred of smaller clones of herself and they're heading back to the village to start healing the wounded," Sasuke outlined. "Aoda and Gamakichi both went back to their homes saying not to hesitate if we need them again."

Naruto nodded. "Got it, thanks Sasuke."

"Mommy!"

Hanami ran up to give her mother a hug, which she anxiously returned. "Sweetie, why did you come back? I told your Aunt Ino to look out for you."

"I'm sorry mommy, I had to. I was just so worried about you, and daddy, and oniichan—"

"Shh...That doesn't matter right now. What's important is you're safe." Mother and daughter hugged one more time.

"Minato," Kushina said to her husband with tears welling up in her eyes. "Is...is she...?"

"I do believe she is."

"Mom, dad," Naruto said as he and Sakura brought their daughter over to face them. "This is your granddaughter, Hanami Uzumaki."

The girl was all smiles as she bowed to both of her grandparents. "Kon'nichiwa!"

Kushina could feel her tears falling down her eyes. 'She's beautiful...'

"Grandma, you're hair looks very pretty."

The woman stared at the girl in surprise for about two seconds, and then her mouth hung open letting out an adorable "Aww..." while her eyes went wide and glossed over with sparkles. She leaned in with her lips perked up to give a kiss on her granddaughter's forehead.

"You're just so cute!" The now overly affectionate grandmother rubbed her cheek against the girl's own as she hugged her. "You're such a good girl Hanami, y'know!"

"I love you grandma."

"I love you two my little Hanami."

Minato smiled at the two of them, not being able to bring himself to break up their hug. Although, he was caught off guard when the girl suddenly collided into him and began hugging his legs. The great ninja return his granddaughter's affections with pride.

"Sasuke," Naruto asked, "do you have any rope or something that we can bind this traitor's hands with?"

"Give me a second." He unloaded his stuff and found the rope they needed, which he handed over the Sakura to do for him since, him having only one arm, she was more physically qualified to do this sort of thing.

Once the binding was done, Naruto reached into the old man's pocket and pulled out the green Space Gem.

"What are you doing daddy?"

"I'm taking steps to get your big brother back sweetie." Naruto then forced Uragi to take the gem into his bound up hands and wrap his fingers around them. "Take us where you sent our kids! And don't you dare try any tricks!"

"And why should I do that?" Uragi's answer came in the form of Kushina clenching her fists as the Red-Hot-Blooded Habanero's wild red hair seemingly came to life in fury, Minato formed a quick Rasengan in his palm, Sakura cracked her knuckles as she glared at the old man in hate, Sasuke held his sword to his neck with a tinge of electric current flowing through it, and Naruto's eyes flashed red with black slits. "Very well."

"Hanami, stay close to us okay, and try not to get scared."

"Hai mommy."

With the six of them all hanging onto Uragi, their prisoner focused his chakra into the gem and they all vanished with a quick flash of green light.

* * *

The flames had dispersed. The light had returned. The ruins of the Valley of the End looked even worse now then ever. And in the midst of all of it were the bodies of two Genin, a boy with blonde hair and a girl with raven black hair.

Both of the children began to stir. They were groggy, beat up, and they both had second degree burns on them that stun from their signature attacks.

"Ow!" Sarada said aloud as she rubbed her head. "What a trip that was! ...Wait? SHINA!"

Her head snapped back in the direction of her dear friend. He was standing up and regaining his bearings. She looked closely at his eyes searching for any signs of hate or obsession that may still be lingering within them.

To her dismay, it was still there. It was fainter, lesser than what is was before, but there nonetheless. Why? Because for all that had happened, the Power Gem was still resting unharmed between then on the valley floor.

'He's fighting it now, I can feel it, but it still has a hold on him. There has to be something I can do to—Wait a second! He's still carrying the...Yes! That might be it! At this point there might not be any other way.'

Shinachiku was hypnotized one again by the crimson glare of the gem. Its power was causing a relapse of sorts within him. He didn't even realize it himself when he made a mad dash to grab it.

Sarada reactivated her Sharingan as she was keeping a close watch over him, and when he was close enough, that was when she made her move. "GENJUTSU: SHARINGAN!"

Shinachiku stopped his movement, it felt like his feet were melting into the floor, and when he looked down that was exactly what it looked like. "Aaahhh!"

Sarada knew that he was no fool, he would figure out quickly enough that this was just a genjutsu and then work to dispel it. She needed to work fast. So, charging at full speed, she rushed over to the boy and reached into his coat pocket.

"Hey! What are you do—?"

Shina's eyes were hypnotized by a blue light. Sarada had reached in and pulled out the Soul Gem, the fabled chakra gem that the boy still had on his person after using it to free the kages back in the village.

"Shina, listen to me. The gem is doing this to you. You can overcome this. You are smart. You are strong. You just need to believe."

The blue light shined in his eyes for about five seconds before it finally faded away. After that, he blinked a couple of times and grabbed his forehead like he had a nasty headache.

"Uh...Where...Where am I?"

Sarada was hesitant. "Sh-Shina...Are you...y'know..._you?_"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, who else would I be?"

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she smiled big and wide. She couldn't help herself. She practically tackled him to the ground and she hugged him tightly around his waist. "Shina! Oh God ! I'm so glad you're back!"

The poor boy was blushing red as a tomato. "S-Sarada! What's going—?" Suddenly everything snapped back into place within the blonde's mind. "Oh no! Sarada! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?! Oh God! I'm so sorry! I swear I never meant to—!"

"Shut up Shina, just shut up..." The girl had no anger or rage in her voice. She said it softly, with tears of both regret and relief. She didn't want to hear any huge apologies or see any begging on hands and knees. No, all she wanted was to stay here and enjoy the peace and quiet of their company and solitude.

They didn't know how long they stayed like that, maybe a few seconds, maybe a few minutes? All they knew was that at some point their eyes met. She became entranced with his green pupils and he with her black ones.

They didn't even realize it when their faces started moving ever so slowly towards each other, their lips perked up and were millimeters from contact...

...And then they saw a quick flash of a green light appear near them and after it passed they were greeted by some familiar faces. Naruto and Sasuke looked taken aback when they saw both of their children so close to each other, it being obvious even to a blockhead like Naruto what was about to happen if they hadn't got there when they did. Sakura was actually giggling to herself once she got over her awkwardness, as was Kushina. Minato just smiled, while Uragi were just disgusted.

As soon as they realized who had greeted them, both kids backed away from each other, blushing bright red in utter embarrassment.

"M-Mom?! Dad?! T-This isn't what you think!"

"Dad?! I-I-I didn't...We weren't..."

"Yeah...sure..." Sasuke said simply with a raised eyebrow.

"Oniichan!" A loud voice caught the boy off guard as Hanami practically jumped into his arms. "Oniichan! I'm so happy you're safe!"

Shinachiku smiled back at her and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm okay now sis. Sarada helped me get better."

The girl turned to the Uchiha and, while she did not say anything aloud, her eyes spoke her gratitude to Sarada.

"Oh my god! What happened here? Are you kids alright?" Sakura questioned as she quickly went to work healing the kid's burns.

"Aunt Sakura," Sarada answered, "Shina and I were being controlled by the chakra gem and we fought. But I was able to break him out of it with the Mind Gem."

"Son, are you sure you're okay?" Naruto asked with seriousness.

"I'm alright now dad, believe it!"

"Good, because there are two people I want you to meet."

After Sakura was eventually done healing both of them, Naruto then took his son by the hand and walked him over to two people he recognized from his adventure, and thank goodness, their presence seemed far warmer and more soothing than they had ever been before. "Shinachiku, I this is your Grandpa Minato and your Grandma Kushina."

The boy blushed somewhat as he bowed. "It is a honor to meet you both."

Kushina couldn't resist. She quickly wrapped her grandson in a tight hug and started kissing his cheeks. "Aw! You're jutsu so handsome and cute! Come here and give grandma a hug!"

Shinachiku did as he was asked even though, him being a twelve-year old boy, he couldn't help feeling a little bit embarrassed with so many looking at him, including a giggling Sarada.

But it was then that he noticed one more person that was in their company. "What is _he_ doing here?!"

Naruto looked over to where his son was looking and sighed. "Uragi's our prisoner now son. The fight is over. We 'convinced' him to use the Space Gem to bring us to where you and Sarada were sent to." He then stared down at the old man. "And now, if you don't mind, I think it's time you sent us back now Uragi?"

"Wait!" Sarada shouted. "Uncle Naruto, the Power Gem." She nudged her head in the direction the gem was resting.

Sasuke decided to go over and pick it up for them. He reached down and held the gem in his one hand, already feeling its power coursing through him. Not to be the fool, he quickly sealed the gem away inside of a scroll.

Uragi had his eyes on the Uchiha's actions the entire time. He memorized the pocket of his poncho where he had stashed it. No one noticed the small, hidden knife that he covertly popped out of his sleeve to slowly cut loose the bonds that were entrapping him.

"Now then," Minato said, "I think its time you take all of us back home."

"As you wish."

In another flash of green light, the company of nine disappeared, and then reappeared again back in the woods outside of the Hidden Leaf Village.

Naruto stood before their prisoner as soon as they'd returned and made his proud statement of authority. "Uragi Rimonō, Councilman of Konohagakure, you are charged with multiple crimes including but not limited to conspiracy, insurrection, use of forbidden jutsu or related relics, and murder. By the power vested in me as Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves...you are under arrest."

The old man hung his head for a couple of seconds, not saying a word. To everyone it seemed that the traitor was resigning himself to his fate...That is, until he finally raised his head and had a truly sadistic smile on his face. "I think not."

The knife had done its job and the bonds were cut. With a flex of his muscles Uragi was free and he quickly launched an attack. "EARTH AND FIRE STYLE: FLAMING STONE BARRAGE!"

The flaming stones were numerous in number. There were so many in fact and they were moving so fast that the heroes were forced to quickly raise their defenses against it. This gave Uragi just the opening he needed. That attack consumed pretty much all the chakra he had left after two teleportations with the stone back-to-back, but soon none of that was going to matter.

Dashing at full ninja speed, he assaulted Sasuke, grabbing him by the throat and lying a hard punch to the stomach. Then he reached into the Uchiha's poncho and pulled out the scroll.

**"NO!"** Naruto, Sakura, Shinachiku, Sarada, Hanami, Minato and Kushina all screamed as one.

Naruto and Shinachiku both went in with kunai drawn to put an end to this quickly, while Sakura charged her strength back into her fists...It was all too late.

With lightning speed, Uragi had unsealed the scroll and, in a moment so horrific to all of them that time itself seemed to freeze in place, they saw the Taka leader take the powerful relic into his hands.

What happened next was the stuff of nightmares. A bright red energy coursed out of the gem and through Uragi's body. The energy passed through him rapidly making their eyes glow red with power. The old man held his head up to the sky as the crimson energy shot out of his mouth in an immense display of power.

A powerful beam of red blasted up into the nighttime sky. The inhabitants of the village, ally and enemy alike, all stopped their battling and stared up at the sky in horror from what they were witnessing.

Uragi, himself now surrounded by the red energy, started laughing like a madman. The power had already consumed him. He had lost itself entirely now. "HAHAHAHAHA! Now it is over Naruto! I am not your prisoner anymore! Now...I AM A _**GOD!**_"

Shinachiku Uzumaki, with Sarada standing beside him and his sister Hanami clinging to his leg in fear, looked on in horror. This battle wasn't over. No...It had only just begun.

* * *

Well...that sucks! Right when everything seemed to have finally resolved itself, Uragi then pulls the biggest swerve yet and gives himself the destructive power of a god! We'll just have to wait and see what our heroes are going to do to get themselves out of this one.

As you all know, I like to sneak in little references into my chapters wherever I can, and that begins with the title of this chapter. For anyone who might be wondering, no, the title "Gods and Monsters" is not a reference to the animated movie "Justice League: Gods and Monsters" that came out last year. Rather, it is a reference to a famous line from the horror classic "The Bride of Frankenstein." There is a scene in that film where Dr. Pretorius pours himself a drink while in a meeting with Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) and he makes a famous toast: "To a new world of gods and monsters!" The title can be interpreted a couple of different ways in the context of this chapter. It could refer the three-on-one battle between Gamakichi, Aoda and Katsuyu against Kuīnsasori, or it could refer to Shinachiku's madness and being consumed by the Nine-Tail's chakra, or it could refer to the escalating powers of our characters, or it could be a tip of the hat to the end of the chapter. Or maybe all of the above? _You_ decide.

Kuīnsasori's resentment of helping out Uragi was intentionally a mirroring of Manda's hatred of whenever Orochimaru summoned him.

Sarada used her Sharingan for the first time and with it she was able to learn the same technique that her father was able to learn during the Chūnin Exams, the Lion Combo. I thought that would be a cool little callback to the early days of the series.

Another obvious tribute was ending the key part of their fight with them thrusting their jutsu into each other after all the hard work they'd put into creating them. This was an intentional callback to that big moment during Naruto and Sasuke's first fight at the Valley of the End at the end of Part One, when their Rasengan and Chidori clashed. The big difference, of course, is that while Shinachiku was unintentionally accessing Kurama's chakra, Sarada had no Cursed Mark form she could use like her father did, which helps raise the stakes since she is supposed to be the point-of-view character in this instance.

I'm really proud of the combination backup Minato and Kushina came up with to help out their son with dishing out the Super Mini-Tailed Beast Ball, with Kushina holding the beast down with her chain like back when she helped him extract Kurama's chakra, and then seeing father and son pull off a Fastball Special! The Fastball Special is a frequent trope that appears in dozens of series, _Naruto_ included, but probably the most famous example of it is in X-Men comics whenever Colossus throws Wolverine towards his opponent.

The sequence of Uragi draining chakra from Kushina is actually taken from multiple inspirations mixed together. Uragi's idea of attacking one of the hero's loved ones to get what he wants and his line, "You know something Uchiha, you're absolutely right," was influenced by "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where Donovan decides to motivate Indy into getting the Grail for him by shooting his father.

Right before that line, the narrator says "...And that's when he got an idea. An awful idea. Uragi Rimonō got a wonderful, _awful_ idea." This was my subtle tribute to Dr. Seuss. This exact line is said be the narrator when the Grinch first gets his delightfully evil idea to steal Christmas from the citizens of Whoville.

Then there was Naruto totally loosing his mind and beating the crap out of Uragi because he tried attacking his mother, which was inspired by "Man of Steel," in which Superman goes totally bloodthirsty on General Zod for the same reason...Of course, unlike Superman, Naruto doesn't bring the fight crashing into the village where innocent people could get in the way, but I won't get myself into that debate.

Naruto's sparing Uragi while the old man's is goading him to finish it and prove him right is another common trope that can be attributed to different sources, by they Luke refusing to kill Darth Vader in "Return of the Jedi," or Rorschach's final confrontation with Doctor Manhattan at the end of "Watchmen," or the final battle between Batman and Joker in "The Dark Knight Returns," or Superman resisting the urge to murder Lex Luthor with his heat vision at the end of the Cadmus arc in "Justice League Unlimited." And those are just a few examples while I'm sure you guys can come up with many, many more. The point is, to prove Uragi wrong, this was the decision Naruto needed to make to prove why he is the better man.

Kushina's overly cute reaction to meeting Hanami was directly inspired by an animated scene from the video game "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution." There is a cutscene flashback in the game called "The Far Reaches of Hope" that tells a story about the bond between Obito and Kushina. The short opens up with a scene where Kushina brings lunch to Minato's team (Kakashi, Obito and Rin), and Rin tells her how much she loves the food she makes. Kushina's kawaii reaction to that is what inspired her reaction to her granddaugther's comment about her hair. You can find the clip on YouTube if you're interested.

That deadly stare that Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Minato and Kushina all give Uragi to intimidate him into using the Space Gem to take them to where Shinachiku and Sarada are was partially influence by, believe it or not, the ending of "Gravity Falls." In the last scene of the final episode, as Dipper and Mabel are boarding the bus to take them back home to California, Mabel is sad that their parents won't let them take Waddles home with them. Grunkle Stan won't stand for that, so he insists to the bus driver that the pig is coming with the kids. The bus driver tells them that transporting animals on the bus is a serious violation, but he never finishes his sentence because Stan whips out a pair of brass knuckles and Great Uncle Ford pulls open his coat to show him his ray gun.

...And yeah, poor Shina and Sarada, cockblocked by their own families. LOL!

Oh yeah, and of course early on Sakura gets a Star Wars moment when she says "I have a bad feeling about this..."

I think that's all I've got for this time. Thank you all so much for you continued support you guys, and I hope to see you all back for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	49. Poll Question

Hello everyone, thesaiyanjedi here. I know that a lot of you are waiting patiently for the next chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure," and I swear I am in the midst of writing it and getting it out to you. But recently, and by recently I literally mean **today**, some crucial bit of information about the Naruto universe has come to my attention that I am struggling with how to decided how to handle.

You see, in the novel _Shikamaru Hiden: A Cloud Drifting in the Silent Darkness_, it is revealed that son after the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Allied Shinobi Forces were replaced by a new form of government called the Shinobi Union. The article on Narutopedia describes it as follows"

Whereas the Allied Forces were composed only of the shinobi of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, as well as the Land of Iron, the Union draws from any hidden village that wishes to participate. Principally led by the five Kage, the Union acceptsmissions from clients and forms a team from all its member nations' shinobi who are found to be most suitable for the mission. Such a system provides equal opportunity to all villages, eliminating the need for future conflicts.

Under the Union, the hidden villages and their associated countries quickly recovered from the Fourth Shinobi World War. In the interest of preserving the peace, a representative from each member village is stationed in every other hidden village so that they can discuss common issues and pursue mutual interests. When the Land of Silence emerges as a potential threat to the Union, the Union's chief organiser, Shikamaru, is tasked with stopping another outbreak of war.

Each village sends a representative to represent their hidden village of origin for the Union. Accordingly, these are shinobi of high value to their hidden villages and have "promising futures" and they meet monthly in the Land of Iron. By the time of _Shikamaru Hiden_, there were a total of ten representatives which included:

Konoha: Shikamaru Nara, Head Representative and Chief Organiser

Suna: Temari

Kiri: Chōjūrō

Kumo: Omoi

Iwa: Unknown

Land of Iron: Unknown

Four unknown representatives

Trivia

The concept of the Shinobi Union is similar to the real world organisation, the United Nations.

The novel states that other smaller nations joined the Union bringing the total of countries affiliated with the Union from six to ten. Which hidden villages these are was not revealed, but Ame and Kusa were mentioned as villages that were approached and offered to join the Shinobi Union.

Basically, this is Naruto's answer to the United Nations. It also states that by the time of the novel the organization had grown to include up to ten countries, though it does not specify exactly which countries those are (although it does mention Amegakure and Kusagakure were approached offered to join).

Why am I talking to you about all of this? Because when I began writing SFA and all its connected stories nearly two years ago I obviously had no idea about any of this and I have little doubt I would have incorporated it had I known back then. Normally I would just put it aside and just go on with what I've been doing, especially at this late a point in my story. However, this feels like a major detail, literally a complete restructuring of the governmental structure of the Naruto universe.

I have set up a poll on my profile page to ask you, my loyal readers, the following question:

**"Should I go back in and edit my work to replace all references to the Allied Shinobi Forces with the Shinobi Union?**

The governmental group is referenced only so much by name in my work that I think I could pull it off. The hard part would be tracking down every single instance where that would have to happen in every chapter I've posted.

I've been racking my brain over this decision and I am really not sure whether making such a change would be the right thing to do or if it would be a betrayal of you, the readers who have stuck with me all this way. That's why I am turning to you to help me find an answer. Please visit my profile page to vote on this question, and leave a comment if you have any thoughts.

Thank you so much for your time and your patience, and I promise that once I feel the results are clear I will get the net chapter out to you guys very soon!

Until next time, see ya!


	50. Chapter 47--Immortals

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back again with the biggest installment yet of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Before we get into this chapter, I first want to thank everybody who voted on my poll and/or shared their thoughts on my issue regarding the question of a Shinobi Union retcon. You all made the decision pretty clear for me, and so I am going to follow my original instinct and just continue on the way I have been up to this point. Thank you all once again.

With that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 47: Immortals**

"Damn."

Sasuke's single line of exasperation summed it all up. Uragi had just used the chakra gem to gain the power of a god, even in spite of all that they had done to prevent it. Their mission was a failure.

...This was the end...

"No!"

That voice of defiance did not come from Naruto as one might expect. No, it came from the younger generation of Uzumaki.

"Shina!" Sakura demanded. "You take Sarada and your sister and get to safety back in the village!"

"Mom! If we don't stop Uragi now there won't _be_ a village!"

"But—"

"Aunt Sakura!" Sarada protested, "Shinachiku and I both touched the Power Stone before. we know what it can do, and we know that Uragi's _not_ going to give up the power once he has it! It's up to all of us!"

"And what are we supposed to do about it?" Sasuke questioned his own daughter.

"We use the—LOOK OUT!"

Sarada was forced to cut off her speech when she saw a beam of red energy shooting straight in their direction. The eight of them used their impeccable ninja speed to the leap out of the way of the blast. Huge trees that weren't blown to bits were totally uprooted as the beam left a trench in the earth that went 10 meters deep and ran the length of the entire forest!

The eight ninja took refuge up in the highest trees, well above ground where Uragi could not see them.

"Holy crap!" Naruto shouted, forgetting that his seven-year-old daughter was within earshot. "That blast must have been 50 kilometers at least!"

"Just about," Minato surmised. "If that blast had been aimed towards the village..."

Shinachiku steeled his resolve. 'Uragi could destroy the whole of the Hidden Leaf Village with that kind of power. Not just the main village but the city above the Hokage Rock also. My home...my friends...all the villagers..._everything_ will be wiped out!'

"Dad," Shinachiku said getting his father's attention, "we need to stop this."

"I couldn't agree with you more kiddo. But we need to come up with a plan." He sighed as he looked to the side. "Damn! Where's Shikamaru when I need him!"

"What? The rest of us not good enough for you dobe?"

The Seventh Hokage's eye twitched. "You _know_ what I mean duck butt! I'm just saying that it would have been nice to have my genius adviser here to help us think up a strategy."

"_I'm_ a genius you idiot!"

"Oh yeah! _Sure_ you are! The same genius who thought it was a good idea to let Orochimaru take over your body just for—"

"Don't you go chastising me Naruto! I'm not the one who needed my father to stop me from giving my soul over to a tailed beast!"

"No! But you _are_ the one who got the idea to go off and find this stupid gem and got us into this mess in the first place!"

"It was prevent Taka from finding it first and causing a disaster!"

"And **this** doesn't count as a disaster?!"

"As if a **moron** like you could have done any better!"

"This moron happens to be your **Hokage!** Or have you forgotten?"

"I've forgotten nothing! You son of a—"

_CRACK!_

The sound of tree bark splintering was enough to break the two old rivals out of their unexpected squabble. What surprised everyone, however, was that it was **not** Sakura who slammed their fist hard enough to crack the solid oak...It was the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero herself!

An exaggerated black aura of death surrounded her as Kushina's long red hair flowed behind her like the tails of the Nine-Tails Fox himself. Her eyes were no longer their lovely violet color but instead were replaced by large, white, pupiless circles outlined by a thick black border.

"**NARUTO UZUMAKI!** Calm down this instant! For goodness sake you're a thirty-five year old man, not a child! You need to be a pillar of strength for your village right now, not having a temper tantrum!" She then turned her head to the other side of the argument. "And **SASUKE UCHIHA!** Really?! A man your age should know better than to get himself wrapped up in petty arguments! Imagine if you're mother were here to witness this, rest her soul!" Now the woman let her legendary temper loose of both of them at once. "Now you boys are going to get along and work together like friends are supposed to and stop embarrassing poor Sakura and I _or_ the kids, and all of us can save the world. Right? _**RIGHT?!**_"

Both grown men cowared in terror at the woman's explosive wrath. Yes! Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage, and Sasuke Uchiha, the prodigal heir to the Uchiha clan, the two great war heroes and quite possibly the most powerful and famous shinobi in the world, and both of them were recoiling in terror just from volume of this newly resurrected woman's voice.

'And I thought Sakura/Karin was scary!' Both of them thought at once.

Minato sweat dropped as he scratched his head sheepishly, obviously the one person here most used to his wife's legendary temperament. Sakura had a curious look of nervousness and admiration for her mother-in-law's ability to keep both her husband and her first love in line so completely.

Hanami was clinging onto her brother's leg in fear as Shinachiku himself felt goosebumps on his skin while promising himself, 'Never! I can _never_ do anything to get on grandma's bad side!'

Meanwhile Sarada was just breathing a sigh of relief. 'Thank goodness she isn't _my_ grandma.'

Naruto and Sasuke got back to reality as the blonde spot from the both of them. "G-Gomen mom, you're right." He turned back to Sasuke. "Sorry about that man, I don't know what—"

"Forget it, water under the bridge." But then, Sasuke not-so-subtly leaned in and whispered something into his best friend's ear. "No offense, but you your mom can be rather, err...intimidating."

Naruto sweat dropped and diverted his eyes to the side. "Yeah, Kiba and Shikamaru did used to tell me that moms can be really scary. I sure hope your mom wasn't like that."

"...Its been so long now that I can barely remember..."

"Oh...I'm sorry. I didn't think—"

"Like I said, forget it. Now lets hurry up and come up with a plan already."

"Yeah, hurry up is right! Look!"

Sakura pointed to the top of the trees where they were seeing the unthinkable. The crimson red form of Uragi Rimonō was growing. Yes, growing! His size increased to 50 feet tall as trees crumbled beneath his feet. In less than thirty seconds the transformation was complete and the traitorous Taka leader was now looming over the Village Hidden in the Leaves in the form of a glowing giant bathed in red chakra. Red energy consumed his entire form until he appeared to be nothing but a being of pure chakra.

Sakura could not contain her sudden sense of incredulousness. "You have **GOT** to be kidding me?!"

* * *

Uragi looked down upon himself. The forest itself rose no higher than his knee caps. The mountains of the lands to the west were at is eye level from their great distance away. His body was completely consumed with the chakra of the Power Gem, which was no longer being held within his hand. It seemed that this strange new form had, somehow, allowed the gem's power to consume him so much that the gem itself was absorbed into his body. It now lay at the center of Uragi's chest where his heart would be, a bright epicenter in a walking sea of crimson power.

"The power...INCREDIBLE! The Power Gem has consumed me! Its power has...What does it matter? I am a god, and I comprehend! I can bring this sick, corrupt, failed world down to pieces and rebuild it as it was always meant to be. I can create the utopia that Taka always envisioned! I...I...**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**"

The colossal god-like being that once was Uragi Rimonō laughed like a true maniac, his voice bellowing deep enough to be heard across the entire village. "What am I thinking?! With this power I can remake the word exactly as **I** want it to be! No one can stand in my way! Not Uzumaki, not Uchiha, not even the master himself! I can overthrow him! Once I've cleansed the Leaf Village I'll do the same to the other great countries and then I'll claim the rest of the Chakra Gems for myself!"

The monster that was once a man looked up to the now nighttime sky and at the full moon that glowed with its lunar radiance. Reaching his enormous arm out, he laughed again. "Even the Moon herself cowers before me! **HAHAHAHAHA!**"

As a mad demonstration of his power, the giant Uragi fired a beam of pure chakra at a mountain far in the distance, The mountain vanished instantly in a colossal explosion that momentarily blinded everyone in the village in a stunning, intense flash of light.

Shinachiku and his family and friends remained where they were up in the tree covering their eyes from the intensity of the explosion.

"The power! Incredible!" Minato exclaimed.

"Everyone stay together!" Naruto ordered.

"Daddy I'm scared!" Hanami panicked.

Kushina grabbed hold of her granddaughter and held her face to her chest to in order to shield her young eyes from the light. Meanwhile, Sarada had unknowingly held onto Shinachiku as the light was finally starting to die down.

When the light had cleared away, the mountain was nowhere to be found. All that remained in its place was an enormous crater with smoke and debris still leaving their mark on the earth.

"...Oh my..." was all Sakura could say as she bore witness to the gem's power once again. "What are we supposed to...?"

"We fight." Shinachiku was the one to say that, not his father. "We stop that thing from getting to the village or else there won't _be_ a village to go home to before this day is over!"

Naruto smiled at his son in pride. "My boy's right. We have the best chance out of anyone of keeping that thing at bay."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. "Why were you looking at _me_ when you said that?"

"Because I think its time we called in the big guys."

"Yeah, well, I suppose calling back our summons would be a good idea—"

"No, no, no, I meant our _other_ big guys."

Sasuke stared at his friend in confusion for only a second before what he meant clocked in his brain.

"What's is dadddy talking about oniichan?"

Shinachiku looked down to his little sister. "I think I know...Hanami, imoto, This may get really scary, so promise to stay with me and Sarada until this is over, okay?"

"...Okay..."

Kushina whispered to her husband, "Minato, what's going on?"

"I think those boys are going to pull their aces in the hole."

Sakura didn't need any explanation. She knew _exactly_ what was going to happen. 'They're right, they have the best chance of stopping that monster in its tracks.'

"Alright everyone!" Sakura spoke to the others. "This is Naruto and Sasuke's fight now! We need to get back to the village and mobilize our allies to provide backup. Lets move!"

"HAI!" The others all said as one. With ninja speed and careful attention to stealth, they leaped out of the tree towards the village.

Meanwhile, Uragi was satisfied with the destructive power he now possessed and began his leisurely, confident march towards the village. Trees and rocks and earth all crumbled beneath his colossal feet. The very earth quaked under his stride with aftershocks that could be felt all the way to the village.

Standing on the forest floor with the giant monster that could flatten them both with merely his foot marching directly towards them, stood two men: one a blue-eyed blonde in an orange sweatshirt and with three matching whisker-like marking adorning each of his cheeks, the other with black-hair and black eyes and wearing a dark cloak.

"It always comes down to you and me, doesn't it?"

"Shut up dobe. Lets just get this over with."

Naruto smirked at the Uchiha's rude comment, knowing full well that he only meant it for fun. Sasuke smirked back.

Saskue stood on the left hand side, Naruto on the right. The two of them bumped their hands—their _real_ hands—together as an age old sign of friendship and camaraderie.

"How about a bet dobe?"

"Huh?"

"The one of us who lands the finishing blow wins. Loser buys dinner for the winner _and_ his family. _And_ the loser has to open a liquor tab. What do say, Lord Seventh?"

Naruto chuckled and held his bandaged, prosthetic hand out for a thumbs up. "Master Uchiha, you've got yourself a bet!"

Shaking hands to seal the pact, both of them looked ahead and up to the sky as the glowing red giant that once was their nemesis Uragi Rimonō approached them. The ground was literally splitting apart under the sheer weight of his footsteps, the crashing and crunching so loud that is almost deafened any ears that heard it. To see this gigantic horror looming over them is like looking at the monolith of Death itself...

...And yet the two men held their ground. Neither of them showed any trace of fear. They were here with a job to do, and it was time to go to work.

"Alright Kurama! Let's do this!" With a scream he charged up the Nine-Tail's Yang chakra to return once again to his glowing golden Six Paths Sage Mode with black markings running along his body and those unmistakable sage eyes. "Oh Yeah!"

Sasuke unfastened his cloak and cast it aside, revealing the violet shirt he wore underneath it with the lighter colored vest. He focused his chakra into his eyes and when he opened them, his full power was reawakened again. "RINNEGAN!"

Uragi stopped his march as he sensed the flux of chakra that was now standing before him. He did not need to be told who it belonged to as he stared down at the two men he hated most in all the world.

"**YOU!** You **DARE** stand in my way?! Look at me now! I am a **GOD!**"

Sasuke would not be deterred. He unsheathed his sword and held it behind his back. "Haven't you heard the stories old man? We eat gods for breakfast!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Leave the one-liners to me duck butt."

"It matters not!" Uragi bellowed out. "Konoha will fall tonight. This world's rebuilding begins **NOW!**"

"AAAGGGHHH!"

Naruto screamed as his chakra cloak took a new shape. It was a shape large and massive and primal. It was a shining creature with Naruto himself at it's center, lifting him off the ground and into the sky. Within seconds, crouching before the glowing red giant was a glowing orange beast. It was Naruto's fabled Tailed Best Mode, a shining avatar of the exact size and shape of the Nine-Tailed Fox himself but made out of pure chakra. The form's nine tails waved about in the wind, as the creature crouched in position ready to strike.

Now it was Sasuke's turn. "COMPELTE BODY SUSANOO!"

With his Mangekyō in his right eye, the Uchiha survivor created an enormous form around himself. It started with a glowing purple ribcage that rapidly took shape and grew in height. Dark armor surrounded the humanoid form, until at last the being had taken full shape. What stood at the orange fox's side was an enormous purple being with a tengu-like nose and giant wings, clad in what appeared to be robes and ornate armor and holding twin katanas in each of its hands.

Uragi growled in frustration at the pair of giant avatars that now stood on equal footing with him.

"So Uragi," Naruto said from within his avatar, "if you don't mind...Why don't you trying picking on somebody your **own** size?!"

He then turned to his best friend and gave a thumbs up. "See? Now **that's** what I call a one-liner!"

* * *

Back in the village, Randamu was observing the sudden appearance of the 50-foot, glowing red Uragi standing mere miles away from the village gate, as well as the appearance of Naruto's Tailed Beast Mode and Sasuke's Susanoo to combat him.

Randamu's words to everyone within earshot said it all: "Anybody here got a shark I can jump?!"

Suigetsu turned his head in confusion. "What?"

"Never mind."

"Guys? What the hell is that thing?!" Ōkami pointed to the big monster in shock as his twin sister unconsciously clung to him with worry.

"It would appear that Uragi has gotten his hands on the Power Gem and has become one with it somehow. And evidently that power has somehow transformed him into a giant monstrosity on the scale of the tailed beasts themselves," Inojin reasoned logically.

"He's turned into some kind of..._**KaijUragi!**_"

Everyone glared at Randamu, either in confusion or in complete annoyance. The Missing-nin with the Mouth actually defended himself. "What? Its Uragi, he's pretty much a kaiju now...Hey, you got a better name for it?!"

Chōchō spoke for everyone: "What's a _kaiju?_"

Randamu sighed loud and overanxiously. "Really? _Really?!_ I thought this was an anime and manga fanfiction here. If you people don't already know what a kaiju is, then frankly you don't deserve an answer."

Shikadai waved his hands in the air to shut the bizarre ninja up. "Alright enough! Look, no matter how troublesome it is, we need to do something about this."

"The boy's right," Tsunade added. "Naruto and Sasuke are dealing with this creature, so our job is to be the backup to ensure that thing **never** sets foot inside the gate."

"Perhaps we can be of some assistance with that?"

Six additional ninja landed among the group. Sakura, Minato and Kushina appeared before them alone with Shinachiku, Sarada and Hanami.

"Minato?" Jiraiya questioned nervously.

"Minato-sensei?" Kakashi ask in equal trepidation. "Are you...?"

A warm smile from the Yellow Flash was all it took to put the two old men at ease. "It alright Kakashi, sensei. Kushina and I are fine now...We're sorry for all we've done."

Jiraiya walked up to the blonde and reached out his hand. "That's quite alright. Its good to have you back old friend."

Minato shook the hand. "Its good to be back sensei." He then took notice of the legions of dead and unconscious bodies littering the battlefield. "I see that you all have been taking care of yourselves."

Chōji boasted as he answered for everyone. "Yes, well, when you have the fabled Konoha 11, _and_ two of the Sannin, _and_ Sasuke's team, _and_ four of the kages, _and_ Neji back with us again, those Taka bastards didn't know what hit them!"

"YOSH!" Lee exclaimed. "The evil forces of Taka crumbled at the feet of this youthful and mighty force! No enemy can possibly hope to overcome this gathering of our great Shinobi Alliance!"

"Yes father!" Burandon proclaimed with equal vigor! "Our bonds of friendship, like the fires of the Springtime of Youth within us, shall never be—!"

"Ahem!" Tenten coughed out loud to shut her family up and to get everyone's attention. "I hate to be the one to break up the moment, but has everyone forgotten about the HUGE FREAKING MONSTER STANDING OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE?!"

Everyone's head's turned back to see the clash of the giants already underway. Naruto and Sasuke had already begun to make their move to defend their home and, for the moment, it seemed that all they could do was watch.

Sakura felt herself in a cold sweat as she stared up at the battle. "Naruto..."

Karin, among the crowd, looked on at the battle herself with a heavy heart. "Sasuke..."

Holding hand, Shinachiku and Sarada looked on, the same thought passing through each of their minds: "Dad..."

* * *

Indeed, the fight had already gotten underway. KaijUragi had fired beams of red chakra from each of his hands at each of his opponents. Naruto stretched out his hand and his avatar deflected the beam up into the sky. The blast stun badly and the avatar's chakra arm was disintegrated, but it regenerated quickly. Sasuke swung his weapon and this command was duplicated by his Susanoo. The giant avatar quickly raised its blades up to its face and, while the force was enough to push him back, they were just enough to deflect the attack back at the enemy.

KaijUragi saw this move coming and rolled out to way, the trees and rocks crumbling beneath him.

This gave Naruto a wide opening. He formed hundreds of chakra arms out of his fox avatar that focused and compressed the power into no less than a **hundred** Big Ball Rasengans all at once!

"SPIRALLING STRIFE SPHERES!"

The hundreds of chakra arms flung out at the enemy and one after the other, in super rapid, unrelenting succession, each sphere made contact with the target with less than a microsecond of lag time in between hits. It was all of the unrelenting blow after stinging blow that the Rasenshuriken could dish out on the body, only on a much more powerful scale.

The explosion of the assault was enough to create a mushroom could of dust as Naruto's chakra arms retracted back into his avatar, but he and Sasuke waited to see what happened...To their horror, the dust cleared and there the KaijUragi stood, with no visible scratch on him.

"That's impossible!" Naruto yelled in shock. "How can he not have a scratch after all of that?!"

"Alright!" Sasuke stated. "You've had your chance Naruto, now its my turn."

Immediately, Sasuke raised the stump that remained of his left arm, thus commanding his Susanoo to raise its own left arm. Focusing his mind and chakra, Sasuke projected his lightning chakra through his avatar's left hand to form an enormous chirping wave of electric energy.

The Susanoo charged forth with its arm outstretched. The crimson giant that was once known as Uragi fired another beam of energy from its body to prevent the blast from making impact, but the beam never reached its target. Why? Because Naruto had directed multiple chakra arms to plunge themselves into the ground and then to burst out again to direct KaijUragi's body to face upwards towards the sky. This held the monster in place and seemingly defenseless as Sasuke charged in with his attack.

"SUSANOO: CHIDORI!"

The massive electric attack shocked the crimson monster all over his body, releasing an electric shockwave that lit up the sky with its intense scale and sheer power.

In fact, back in the village and all across the great city that overlooked the Hokage Rock, villagers, citizens and shinobi alike stopped in their tracks at the horror of the three-way monster melee that was happening just outside of their borders. They rooted for their Hokage and his friend to win the day, but deep down they were also terrified by the three-way duel of the kind that many of them had only ever read about in _The Tale of Naruto_. To them, this was a clash of monsters, of gods, of immortals...

After the electric wave of the Chidori had past, Sasuke leaped backwards and Naruto threw the seemingly unconscious form of their enemy down to the ground with a thud that left a fissure in the earth.

Leaping back to his best friend's side, Naruto exercised his sage abilities to detect for any life signs. He frowned. "Damn! That didn't do anything either."

Sasuke scowled. "We don't have much time left to waste on this."

Naruto and his avatar turned their heads to face the side to smirk at their friend. "Well there's always the way Kakashi-sensei taught us."

Sasuke and his Susanoo turned to face their friend. "Fine. But this doesn't mean that you're not still paying for dinner dobe."

"Heh. Wouldn't dream of it. But the tab's on you!"

"Heh. Deal."

The giant orange fox and the purple humanoid bumped fists as they readied for the next phase of their attack.

* * *

The fight within the village was over. The fires of war and invasion were quenched. Devastating damage had been done this day and many lives were lost, shinobi and villager alike. But right now was not the time to mourn the dead. Work needed to be done.

Every Jōnin, Chūnin, Genin, Sannin and Kage that could still fight had assembled as a singular army, much as they had back during the war. Husbands and wives stood with their children as true ninja families and surrounded themselves with friends and colleagues of old.

As kages, Gaara, Darui, Chōjūrō and Kurotsuchi stood at the front of the pack, taking their place as de facto leaders of this alliance. Kankurō and Sunako were right there at Gaara's side, as was Temari who stood with her husband Shikamaru and their son Shikadai. At Durai's side was his old friend and loyal bodyguard Omai, and standing with him was Karui with her husband Chōji and their daughter Chōchō. And far be it for the legendary Ino-Shika-Chō to ever be split apart, so Ino stood proudly beside them with her husband Sai and their son Inojin. Kurotsuchi stood with her fellow kages, her old friend Akatsuchi at her side, while Chōjūrō, having lost his own bodyguard, stood alone.

Kiba and Hinata stood together with their children Ōkami and Tsuki, and their three ninken, the aged-but-experienced Akamaru, and the twins loyal puppies Akamoro and Akamiri. Neji stood beside his cousin and her family, _his_ family, ready to lay his life down for his village once again if necessary, and like last time, that would be _his_ choice, not that of fate. Also standing with the family were Hinata's younger sister Hanabi, and Kiba's older sister Hana with her ninken the Three Haimaru Brothers.

Lee and Tenten, with their son Burandon, stood near the Inuzuka and Hyūga clans, wanting to remain close to their dearly missed teammate Neji. Not far away, Shino stood with his son Bagu watching to battle unfold.

Jiraiya and Tsunade overlooked their godson and heir doing battle with this seemingly invincible enemy alongside last of the Uchiha. No one but Shizune, who was standing directly behind them, had noticed that they were each holding hands as they stared on with hope.

Kakashi, likewise, stood there glaring at the battle, Kurenai and Guy near his side. The former Copy Ninja, son of the White Fang himself, found himself once again left to marvel at how far his two students had truly come to now, even in the wake of everything that had come between them, be standing together as one to save their home, no, the world, from a seemingly invincible enemy once again. It was almost enough to bring a tear to the old man's eye...

Iruka was in the same boat as he stood there with Anko only a few feet away from him. When he first met Naruto he was just a silly, troublemaking nuisance that nobody believed could ever amount to anything. But Iruka always knew better and so he did his part to set Naruto down a path that he knew would lead him to greatness one day. And now look at him...

Konohamaru had reunited with him old teammates Udon and Moegi as he looked up at his Nii-chan fighting to save the world once again. For as long and he could remember he looked up to Naruto, trained under him, pulled pranks with him, even took his son on as his student. He could not be there to back Naruto up during the war, but now he would be there, no matter what!

Dozens upon dozens of other shinobi gathered witness the battle of giants as well, including Ebisu, Kotetsu Hagane, Izumo Kamizuki. Also within the crowd were a few faces that had all heard the message of the Hokage's son over the radio and chose to answer the call of their village to come out of retirement and re-don their shinobi to defend their home in her hour of need. Such familiar faces included Chōza Akimichi, Yoshino Nara, Shibi Aburame, Hiashi Hyūga, Tsume Inuzuka and her ninken Kuromaru, Ibiki Morino, and even Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno. Only shinobi that specialized in non-combative fields such as Shiho, Katasuke and Kōsuke were not among the masses.

But at the front of the army, standing ahead of even the kage's and their loved ones, where the families of the two heroes who were fighting for their village's soul. Karin could sense everything that was happening before her even if she had not had her sight. The sheer power that Uragi possessed from claiming the gem was terrifying. It was enough to bring anyone to their knees in fear...had it not been for the also unbelievable power of the two men she was watching right now. Sasuke, the man she loved and would go to the ends of the earth with, and Naruto, the closest thing to family she had left.

Suigetsu and Jūgo stood at her side, also worried about their leader and friend. While Randamu was apparently the one person in thi massive crowd that was not paying attention to what was happening and instead playing on some sort of portable gaming machine that he'd pulled out of his 'magic satchel.'

Sakura stood at the front with Minato and Kushina at her right side. Shinachiku, Hanami and Sarada were standing just to the left. Obviously, they were more worried about Naruto and Sasuke than anyone else. They might have been ordered them to return to the village to defeat the last of Taka's forces, but with that job done, they knew their rightful place was at their side...Besides, these were Naruto's wife, parents, children and goddaughter, how much control did he _really_ have over any of them?

"Kushina?"

The woman turned her head, her long red hair flowing as she did so. "Mebuki?"

A blonde-haired woman took a disbelieving step towards the other woman. The blonde had many more wrinkles and visible age on her visage than the redhead did, for reasons that were out of either of their control.

Mebuki took that step up to the physically younger woman and they each got a clear look at the other. Their faces lit up and tears of joy formed in the corner of their eyes. The two former friends, now sister-in-laws, came together in a strong and emotional hug.

"I missed you so much..." Mebuki said while allowing her tears to fall.

"I missed you too..." Kushina answered as she closed her eyes smiling.

Sakura stood there smiling warmly at the scene. Not since Hanami was born had she seen her mother this happy. She had told her long ago that she and Kushina had been close friends since their Academy days, and that her mother was devastated when she'd learned that Kushina had died.

When the two women broke up the hug, Mebuki suddenly looked around at the crowd, almost anxiously searching for something...or someone. She turned back to her old friend. "Mikoto?"

Kushina's expression became saddened. "No."

Now Mebuki closed her eyes in regret. After a moment she nodded her head in understanding, even if she was still sad.

Kushina put her hand on her shoulder. "Mebuki, we can catch up later, right now we have work to do."

"Grandma's right grandma," Shinachiku told them as she stepped up to them...briefly stopping and turning his head after he realized the confusing sentence he'd just said. But then he shook his head ignoring it, and continued. "My dad and Uncle Sasuke need us all together to provide backup if things get bad."

"I do not believe we need to worry about that for now." Sunako said in a fairly monotone voice as she pointed towards the sky. "Look."

The company turned their heads upwards as the clash of the titans began again...

* * *

"SUSANOO: FIST!"

The purple figure's massive fist took a slug at the crimson giant. He dodged it easily and delivered a karate chop into the Susanoo's upper arm before transitioning to a judo throw. The violet construct was able to kick itself away and take flight, swinging its mighty sword at its opponent.

KaijUragi released another blast of the Power Gem's energy at the Susanoo, blasting both of it's blades apart. Sasuke winced as he willed two more blades to materialize in their place.

He then uprooted a giant tree from the ground a flung the solid oak tree like a club into the enemy's stomach. Instead, the enemy merely grabbed the tree and used the powerful chakra from the gem to atomize it in less than a second.

"BIG BALL RASENGAN!"

The giant glowing fox avatar formed a giant ball of chakra in it's hand and threw it directly at the monster. KaijUragi was quick to notice it, and would have even if Naruto hadn't shouted the technique's name out like a battle cry. Turning quickly, he deflected the jutsu by literally batting it away with his gigantic hands of pure red chakra.

Naruto charged at the enemy by engaging in a full on kaiju-sized taijutsu battle. Naruto's avatar would send out dozens of chakra arms at KaijUragi, but the giant creature was easily able to dodge them, blast them apart with the power of the gem, or, amazingly, grab hold of them and pull the Nine-Tailed avatar towards him for a Power Gem-enhanced falcon punch that knocked Naruto's form straight to the ground in an impact that demolished acres of trees and shook the woods, the village, and the city all at once.

But that was exactly the opening they were counting on. While KaijUragi was turned in Naruto's direction, Sasuke focused his lighting chakra into his blade once again and in so doing channeled them further into his Susanoo's duel weapons. With its large wings outstretched, the Uchiha went in for the finishing blow.

"SUSANOO: CHIDORI!"

Both weapons speared the crimson giant clean through, the bolts of lightning surrounding the swords shocking the hell out of him!

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

KaijUragi screamed out in pain as he was shocked, before seemingly passing out in a slump while still impaled on the duel blades. The color left his crimson form, his head fell, his breathing seemed to stop.

"...I...I think..." Naruto was grinning wide before his classic childish over enthusiasm caused him to literally leap into the air in celebration, his avatar doing the same thing along with him.

Sasuke, however, did not move from where he was, instead staring intently and unblinking with his Mangekyō and Rinnegan eyes. 'No. No way its that easy...'

Naruto's attention snapped back into focus as his Sage of Six Paths abilities detected a sudden shift within the enemy. "SASUKE! LOOK OUT!"

KaijUragi's eyes snapped open as he quickly grabbed hold of the blades that were impaling him and sent a wave of chakra straight through the blades and into Sasuke's himself!

**"AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!"**

The blast was stronger than anything Sasuke had ever felt from any opponent since the War. He could feel his life force leaving him and his dōjutsu deactivated from his body no longer being able to focus.

He was passing out...his Susanoo had completely disintegrated. He was falling to the forest floor several feet below to his death...

* * *

**"DAD!"** Sarada scream out loud at her father's plummeting.

**"UNCLE!"** Shinachiku yelled at his godfather's fall to certain death.

Karin's, Sakura's, Suigetsu's, and Jūgo's voices all merged as one at the sight happening before them. **"SASUKE!"**

* * *

**"SASUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"**

Naruto's loud, desperate outcry was accompanied by the Seventh Hokage, in his full Kurama-avatar glory, leaping directly over the head of his colossal-sized enemy and catching the unconscious form of Sasuke Uchiha in the Nine-Tail's glowing hands. The avatar brought the figure into itself and Naruto himself took the body into his arms.

Sasuke was out like a light. He had bruises and cuts and burns from his battle and especially from that last attack. He was alive, but the great warrior looked so...helpless...

**"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"**

Naruto's scream of agony at his best friend's near death signaled the fox avatar's rapid turn around to charge at the enemy with full speed and ferocity. Not only that, but the beast's mouth was hanging open as an nightmarish level of positive black and negative white chakra was gathering together into a spherical form. The gauntlet had been thrown, the end was coming. The full fury of the Nine-Tails was about to be unleashed.

**"TAILED BEAST BALL!"**

The sphere of pure demonic chakra fired from the avatar's mouth with the fury of an angry god. The beast could be seen from all the way back in the village. Everyone watching the events unfold knew full well what such a display of power meant and that if Uragi were still a mortal man he would never be able to survive a blow like it.

Unfortunately, Uragi Rimonō was _not_ merely a man anymore. With the Tailed Beast Ball flying directly towards him at lightning speed like a harbinger of death, Uragi merely stood his ground and fired the most intense and most powerful beam of power yet straight from his body.

The impacting of the two powerful abilities bathed the entire area, perhaps the entire Land of Fire, in a blanket of intense white light. Every shinobi watching from the sidelines or civilian watching from the village and the metropolis above the Hokage Rock covered their eyes to shield themselves from the two titanic forces of power that had come together. Sharingan, Byakugan, Rinnegan, none of them could fare much against a clash like this one.

**"NARUTOOOOOOOO!"**

Sakura's scream was hardly enough to break through the deafening, apocalyptic roar of the two energies coming together in a wave of power. It was a beam struggle the likes of which the village, perhaps _any_ village, had not seem in generations.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he pushed his ball through the crimson wave of chakra, but Uragi was not letting up on his seemingly infinite power.

The beam struggle was growing intense, seemingly helpless, and Naruto himself was beginning to feel himself growing tired, almost like he was about to pass out...

...

'Sakura...Shina...Hanami...Mom...Dad...Sasuke...Kakashi-sensei...Iruka-sensei...Pervy Sage...Baachan...Everybody...'

Their faces flashed through his mind one after another in a seeming time loop. They each appeared in a black abyss screaming his name in love and worry. His wife, his children, his parents, every single one of his friends and love ones, his precious people, the village he has swore an oath to protect...

* * *

...

_Kakashi spoke before the entire village below him "For five years I have held watch over this village, it was taxing, frustrating, difficult...and it was also the greatest honor I have had the pleasure of holding throughout my career as a shinobi of this village. But as most of us here know, time moves on. As one generation enters its twilight, so the next must rise up and take its place. And it is to that end I present to you today the one many of us here regard as the greatest hero of his generation. His life's story is a true epic, his accomplishments in such a short amount of time are a testament to his amazing ability...Frankly, it would take writing an entire book to do this young man's story justice!"_

_After the crowd laughed, the masked man continued. "This young man has trained, studied, and worked himself to the very edge of his limits and surpassed them over and over again to prove to this village, a village that once looked down upon him with hate and rejection, that he had what it took to not only earn our respect, but that he was worthy of leading us into the new era...Well, to that young man, I would just like to say: mission accomplished!"_

_The village erupted into applause as the young man in question took in everything that was being said with pride and humility...and just a little bit of irony as a beautiful young woman next to him squeezed his hand, making him look at her and smile as warmly at her as she did him._

_"And so," Kakashi continued, "without any further ado, I hereby present my student, my successor, and most of all my friend, and _your_next Hokage...Naruto Uzumaki!"_

_All of Naruto's friends down below clapped and hollered in praise, some even whistled in their excitement. And as soon as Naruto came into view, the crowd went completely ecstatic! There he was, their hero, about to fulfill the destiny he had vowed to reach for so long and now all of them were here to witness it._

_Shaking hands and exchanging a silent thank you with his teacher, Naruto then got on one knee as Kakashi silenced the crowd and then began to speak._

_"Naruto Uzumaki, do you swear to pledge yourself to the title and office of Hokage, and agree to take on all the duties and responsibilities that come with?"_

_"I swear."_

_"Do you swear to honor the history and legacy of this village in addition to helping to forge the path to it's future?"_

_"I swear."_

_"And do you swear to cast aside all selfish pursuits and pledge yourself to the continued safety and longevity of this village and its people, so long as you live?"_

_"I swear!"_

_"Then on this day, I, Kakashi Hatake, Sixth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, hereby proclaim you, Naruto Uzumaki..." He reached up to his head and grabbed his Hokage hat, removed it, and placed it upon the stunned young man's head. "...Nanadaime, Seventh Fire Shadow, Seventh Hokage of Konohagakure! Now...rise!"_

_As Naruto stood up, he was overcome with the magnitude of the commotion that was all for him. It was almost deafening to him. He almost did not want to believe that all of this was for real, until a knowing nod from Kakashi confirmed to him that indeed it was._

_He looked back to his friends that were with him on the balcony. Shikamaru, Shizune, Karin and Tsunade were all smiling and clapping. Sasuke wasn't clapping, but he was smirking in approval. And Sakura, she was fighting to hold back the tears in her eyes._

_He then noticed Tsunade giving a knowing nod to Shizune, who then went up to him with some sort of cloth in her hands. Unfolding it, it was revealed to be a cape, a white cape with red flame-like motifs along the bottom edges and a kanji for 'Seventh Hokage' written vertically down the back. Naruto's eyes widened, it looked exactly like the cloak that the Fourth Hokage used to wear...his father._

_Closing his eyes and smiling in acceptance, he stretched his arms out as Shizune put it on him, tying the ends of the cape together with a red rope; he lowered his arms once she was done. And with that, the transformation was now complete; gone was the weak, stupid, outcast prankster with big dreams and almost zero support and talent, and in his place now was a fully grown young adult man, a symbol of strength, power, and most of all hope for a new generation. Gone was the Naruto of the past and in his place was the son of the Yellow Flash and the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. In his place was Naruto, the Seventh, the Leaf Village's Orange Hokage!  
_

* * *

...

"AAH!"

Naruto re-awoke with a start! He was still in the midst of this godlike clash of power and he was loosing.

'NO! No I won't let it end like this! I am the Seventh Hokage! The village is counting on me! **Everyone's** counting on me! Sakura! Shinachiku! Hanami! Mom! Dad! Kakashi-sensei...Iruka-sensei...Pervy Sage...Baachan...'

He looked down to his side even as he continued to push his attack forward. The unconscious form of his best friend still lying there. He smiled '...And yeah, even you...Sasuke...'

And so, with an intense rebel yell, Naruto kept drawing more and more of the Nine-Tail's power and the natural energy around him, his gigantic glowing avatar never relenting on his attack even as it struggled to push through the tsunami of power that the enemy was overwhelming him with.

But then, Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and quickly turned his head. There was Sasuke, fully awake and with a visage of determination. No words were said between the two men, none were needed and time for them was nonexistent. There was only time for action.

_They say we are what we are, but we don't have to be  
I'm bad behavior but I do it in the best way  
I'll be the watcher (watcher) of the eternal flame  
I'll be the guard dog of all your favorite dreams_

_(Ooh)  
I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass (glass, glass)  
(Ooh)  
I try to picture me without you but I can't_

Naruto smirked as Sasuke quickly reactivated his dōjutsu again and cast a huge wave of violet chakra, large enough to flow over his friend's entire avatar. The form of Sasuke's Susanoo enveloped the fox spirit, encasing it in its armored form. What had materialized was a gigantic, nine-tailed, orange-golden fox composed of pure chakra with black markings all over its body, standing upright with the purple Susanoo armor encasing it within, all at the same time as the fox continued to push its Tailed Beast Ball at the enemy.

_'Cause we could be immortals, immortals  
Just not for long, for long  
And live with me forever now  
You pull the blackout curtains down  
Just not for long, for long  
We could be immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals_

_Immortals_

"SASUKE! WE NEED TO PUSH HARDER!"

"I'M TRYING!"

Naruto took a solid stance that was then mimicked by his avatar. He roared out loud to spur on Kurama's output into the Tailed Beast Ball.

Sasuke winced as he kept pouring more and more of himself into his Susasnoo, simultaneously fueling his own power into the jutsu.

Back on the sidelines, the entire company of ninja were staring on in amazement. It was the children of the men currently fighting that let their voices be heard.

"GO DAD!" Shinachiku yelled out with a pump of his fists! "Kick that bastard's ass!"

"DAD!" Sarada called out at the top of her lungs. "Go get him!"

"I BELIEVE IN YOU DADDY!" Hanami shouted.

...

Somehow, even within the closed space of the inside of a giant armored fox spirit, the voices of their children had managed to reach the two men. They were all the motivation they needed to keep pushing their attack and break through the utter onslaught of power.

_Sometimes the only pay off for having any faith  
Is when it's tested again and again everyday  
I'm still comparing your past to my future  
It might be your wound but they're my sutures_

_(Ooh)  
I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass (glass, glass)  
(Ooh)  
I try to picture me without you but I can't_

**"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"**

**"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"**

A few more inches...a few more...a few more..._**BOOM!**_

_'Cause we could be immortals, immortals  
Just not for long, for long  
And live with me forever now  
You pull the blackout curtains down  
Just not for long, for long  
We could be immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals_

The Tailed Beast Ball broke through. Impact was made with the towering crimson monster that was once Uragi Rimonō of Taka.

The explosion was focused but utterly catastrophic, like a literal chakra bomb detonating on a single, colossal body. If the attack had been aimed at the village or the city then thousands of lives would have been lost instantaneously.

The blast was so bright that the light was all consuming. The entire world turned to white...

...

There was no sound, no voice, not even a dog barking or a bird chirping to be heard for about five minutes. It took that long for everybody's awareness of the world around them to come back to them. When it did, what they saw was the giant armored fox standing on its hind legs staring intently at the smoking form that was mere yards away.

Neither of the two men standing within the colossal creature said a word to one another, they were both too focused on the fate of the enemy that, if the gods were on their side, was finally put down by the sheer power of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Finally, with a quick gush of wind, the smoke blew away...

...And when it did, it revealed the form of KaijUragi, still standing in all his insane glory. The damage the Tailed Beast Ball had done to him was severe, but it was already healing fast thanks to the effects the Power Gem were having on his body. It would seem that, by absorbing the gem, this gigantic kaiju form he was in was a form made up of almost pure chakra! Because of this, the gem allowed him to put up a shroud of its power to help defend himself, and even without it, the gem's infinite power could replenish quickly, and thus regenerate his form.

"Damn!" Sasuke cursed out loud.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted to his friend to get his attention. "Don't you go giving up on me yet! We've still got our fusion up so lets use it and gets this thing done."

Sasuke smirked. "Whatever you say pal."

_Immortals_

_And live with me forever now_  
_And pull the blackout curtains down_

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" KaijUragi laughed manically, even he himself surprised at the sheer amount of power he possessed. "FOOLS! You have accomplished nothing! Even the Power of the Nine-Tails can do nothing to stop—AAGGGHHHH!"

KaijUragi was brought to his knees as he suddenly felt multiple chains made up of adamantine wrapping around his body and strangling him around his neck. "Wha..AH! What is this?!"

The crimson giant gazed downwards to look for the source of the confining chains and he cursed when he saw who was responsible: two red haired women, one with lovely long hair and violet eyes, the other with crimson eyes highlighted by brown glasses and with her hair in a strange manner, short and spiky on one side, while longer and straight on the other. At the moment, both of the women appeared _extremely_ angry.

"LEAVE...MY SON...ALONE!" Kushina shouted in fury.

"STAY...AWAY...FROM MY SASUKE!" Karin shouted herself.

"BIG BALL RASENGAN!"

A second, darker-colored avatar of the Kyuubi appeared out of nowhere. It was the fox's Yin half meaning that it was none other than Minato that was at the center of it. With his and Sasuke's wives holding the enemy down, it gave the Fourth a free shot to deliver a colossal-sized version of his signature jutsu.

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" KaijUragi screamed out as he was forced to take the hit.

The damage may have already been healing, but it wasn't happening quickly enough because then somebody else leaped onto the battle field...a pink-haired woman with a violet diamond encrusted upon her forehead.

"SHARRANOO!"

Sakura unleashed her full, unhindered strength upon her giant foe. The punch was enough to push the giant into the earth itself, creating a fissure in the ground in his exact humanoid shape.

Two more people came into the battle, an old man with a wart on his nose and with long white hair, and a woman who was of the same age yet looked to be in her twenties.

"RASENGAN!"

"SHAAAAAA!

The two combined attacks pushed the giant even further into the ground. But they could tell that the inner light inside the Power Gem that was in the center of his chest was starting to glow. He was powering out to wipe them all out.

So quickly, two more shinobi came in to land their attack: an older man with white hair and with half his face covered by a cloth mask, and a younger man with a blue scarf tied around his neck.

"CHIDORI!"

"RASENGAN!"

The two jutsu landed to deal even more damage, but it wasn't amounting to enough, and the next blast was still charging.

"HIRAMEKAREI: MUTILATION!"

Chōjūrō suddenly leaped into the battle and, with a swing of his signature duel-handled sword, he created a large amount of light blue, fish bone-like crystals that simultaneously did a great deal of damage to the enemy and also restrained his movement.

"LAVA RELEASE: QUICKLIME CONGEALING TECHNIQUE!"

Kurotsuchi leaped in next and expelled a large quantity of gas quicklime from her mouth for effective damage. She then invoked a second attack.

"WATER RELEASE: WATER TRUMPET!"

She quickly launched a large jet of water from her mouth through her hand. This caused the remnants of the quicklime substance to act similarly to quick-drying cement, which served to help that much more with restraining the giant.

"STORM RELEASE: LASER CIRCUS!"

Leaping in wielding his giant cleaver sword, Darui first created a halo of bright energy that spread around his hands, which then encircled one of his hands before shooting out at the pinned enemy as several beams of electrical energy. He rapidly made as many beams as possible both to afflict maximum damage and to help keep the foe pinned.

"PRISON SAND BURIAL!"

Gaara used his mastery over sand to loosen the already several dented ground beneath the enemy's body to catch him in a maelstrom of sand. It needed to be far larger than normal due to the sheer size of this particular opponent. As KaijUragi was sinking, the sand glued onto his limbs applied pressure to his whole body, leaving him utterly devoid of any kind of movement.

That was the opening that the children were waiting for! Shinachiku and Sarada ran in at top speed with their new, signature jutsu in hand and simultaneously landed a critical blow.

"ROAR! SCORCHING CHIDORI!"

"WIND AND FIRE RELEASE: RASENGAN!"

_We could be immortals, immortals  
Just not for long, for long_

"DAD! FINISH IT NOW!"

The duel sounds of their children yelling at them prompted the two men to finally end this. Together they willed a single massive sword into their combined construct's hand and, not wasting time, thrust the entire blade downwards into the heart area of the their trapped and now weakened opponent. The sword has stabbed him right where the Power gems was housed, which, for the moment, was enough to stop the impending blast.

"Naruto! Now's our chance! Together!"

"HAI!"

Sasuke's Susanoo armor dematerialized off of Naruto's avatar and reformed as a separated humanoid construct again, with Sasuke back in the center of it. Sasuke was quick to prepare his most powerful technique of all. He focused his chakra into his Susanoo's arm to create an enormous longbow and arrow that he infused with lightning chakra. The arrow was poised to be released at exactly the right moment.

Naruto got into his famous pose. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Two identical clones of his entire chakra construct appeared, then immediately remerged with the original, creating a three-faced, six-armed construct. In the creature's three right arms it was preparing one of Naruto's most powerful techniques, a Rasenshuriken of enormous size, roughly the size of Gamakichi. In its three left arms it was preparing another Rasenshuriken, this one being very different and more powerful. It was a Truth-Seeking Ball Converted into a Tailed Beast Ball with wind-natured chakra added to form its distinctive shuriken-like shape. Both of these techniques were infused with natural energy.

"Ready Naruto?!"

"Go!"

"INDRA'S ARROW!"

"SIX PATHS: ULTRA-BIG BALL RASENSHIURIKEN!"

_We could be immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals  
Immor- immortals_

_Immortals_

The three inconceivably powerful attacks came together as one. They triggered an explosion that, once again, was apocalyptic in its scale and size. The light was blinding and all-consuming as everyone stood and waited to see the outcome...

...

By now both Naruto and Sasuke's avatars had dissipated. The two friends, each feeling understandably exhausted, fell from a great distance and landed on their feet. They were both quickly greeted by their families.

"Naruto!" Sakura ran up to her husband and embraced him in a bone crushing hug before grabbing hold of his face and forcefully kissing him full on the lips, not caring whether he was still in his Six Paths form or not. Naruto was quick to accept, basking in the warmth of her lips and completely forgetting that his parents, their children, Tsunade, and worst of all Jiraiya were all smiling at them.

Sasuke was quickly embraced and kissed by his own wife as well which he returned before they broke up so he could get a hug from his daughter.

"Daddy! You did it!"

"_We_ did it. Arigato Sarada."

"DADDY!" Hanami quickly ran over to her dad, so excited that she wasn't afraid of his glowing form. Naruto quickly brought her into a tight embrace, thanking the heavens that she was safe and sound.

"Shinachiku." The man's voice caught the attention of the boy. "Good work out there son!" He said with a goofy grin and a thumbs up, which the boy was quick to return.

After everyone—meaning _everyone_ that had come to witness the fight—had greeted and congratulated one another for a battle won and a village saved, they all gathered at the crater. What they found was the incapacitated figure of Uragi Rimonō, no longer a towering giant, but now a normal sized man once again.

"So...Is it over?" Sakura questioned.

Karin focused on the body's energy. "I'm not sensing any chakra coming from him. So yeah, I think so."

Naruto concentrated, "I don't sense anything either."

"Then we've won!" Randamu shouted with glee as he appeared out of absolutely nowhere. "We WON! We WON!"

The masked schizophrenic started making obscene movements like grinding and twirking as he proceeded to start dancing with literally every single kunoichi in the crowd. He ever tried grinding himself against Kurotsuchi, until the Tsuchikage threatened to use her lava abilities to melt off his genitalia unless he backed the hell away from her...which he wisely did.

Instead, the moron tried to celebrate their victory with an impromptu song: _We are the champions! My friend—_

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu, Jūgo, Sarada, Shinachiku, Naruto and Sakura all were in no mood for any of this nonsense!

Naruto suddenly got a sly grin in his face. "Hey Sasuke?"

"What do you want?"

"You remember our deal right? I pay for dinner while you cover the bar tab."

"Heh. Sure, whatever dobe."

Sakura looked confused. "Huh? What are you boys talking about?"

"Its nothing honey, just some silly bet we made. I'll tell ya later."

"In speaking of bets," Sarada said with an evil grin as she snaked her way up to a certain blonde-haired boy, "you do remember our agreement, right Shina?"

"Huh?"

"Remember? That karaoke place I told you about?"

Now the poor boy was blushing like mad. "SARADA!"

The girl rolled her eyes; it was time to resort to the blackmail again. "Aunt Sakura! Guess what I found under Shina's bed—UFF!"

Shinachiku clamped his hand over her mouth to shut her up. If she blabbed to his mom about those magazines he'd been hiding he was a dead man! "Stop it! Are you trying to get me killed?!"

"So, its a date then? Any song I want, however many I want? No more trying to weasel out of it?"

Shinachiku sighed _really_ long and hard. "Deal..."

Sarada was beaming brightly and she kissed the boy right in the cheek, causing him to blush red as a tomato.

"Aw! Isn't that cute!" Kushina squealed while watching the whole thing. "I had no idea my handsome little Shina-chan could sing!"

"GRANDMA!"

"Oh yeah!" Sakura added, having heard nothing that Sarada was trying to tell her earlier. "My baby has the voice of an angel. Its part of why all the girls love him so much."

"MOM!"

"Well," Randamu said interrupting, "at the very least the battle is over and we can all go home. Yep! There's absolutely nothing more that can happen to make this any worse—"

_**BOOM!**_

An explosion of red energy shot out of the crater. It shot into the sky before vanishing. All of the ninja got into defensive stances and some of them appeared terrified as the now exhausted ninja saw a horrific sight.

Rising out of the crater was Uragi, still back in his original human size, but nevertheless glowing intently with the same crimson chakra from the Power Gem. And at the moment, he looked angry...really..._really_ angry...

Randamu's face faulted as he turned his head to the side to look into some sort of invisible camera once again. 'Y'know, one of these days I _really_ ought to learn to keep my big mouth shut..."

* * *

Whoa! That was a chore! I suppose you could say that this one was the 'biggest' chapter yet! Eh! Ehh...? ...Never mind.

Alright, some of you might be thinking that me turning Uragi into a kaiju-sized monster version of himself was a hoaky idea (hell, I had Randamu asking for a literal shark he could jump over), and to be honest, that wasn't my original idea. But, it was always in my plan that I was holding off on employing Naruto's Sage of Six Path's Kurama construct and Sasuke's Susanoo until this late into the battle. And as I was plotting it, I started thinking about it as a mangaka or an anime artist and I realized that just having those two giant creatures fighting a regular, human-sized man wasn't visually satisfying. If I was going to employ both of their giant forms, then dang it, I wanted to go all the way with it and have a full-blown kaiju battle! And out of that, the name "KaijUragi" came out. Yeah, its ridiculously corny, but that's the beauty of giving dialogue to Randamu.

For anyone who needs a visualization for this creature, have you ever seen the season two finale of "The Legend of Korra?" Remember what Unaloq and Vaatu turn into in that finale? Think more in the lines of that.

A lot of the visualization of this battle came to me, from inspiration from the Boruto movie. Now, let me be perfectly clear. I have not seen the full movie myself, nor do I have any real intention to in the near future. I'm sure its a perfectly fine movie on its own merits and I fault nobody who saw it and enjoyed it. But personally, I feel the same way about that film as I do The Last; it doesn't matter how good some people tell me it is, I still know in my heart of hearts that I, me specifically, am going to be disheartened by having to see it, me being a NaruSaku fan. So if I am so certain I am not going to enjoy something, why would I bother watching it? Its like all the folks who prematurely hated the Ghostbusters reboot, if you honestly and truly, for whatever reason, know that you are not going to like the movie, then you have the right to not see it, but at least be like me and fully respect anyone who does want to see it, accept that we all have opinions about art, and don't go out of your way to demonize anyone who has an opinion different from yours. Just because somebody holds the original Ghostbusters near and dear to their hearts and doesn't believe a reboot is necessary does **not** automatically mean they are a misogamist! The world is **NOT** that simple! Me, I thought Ghostbusters 2016 was okay, not great, not terrible, just okay. But I'm getting off base here, sorry.

When I say the chapter took inspiration from the Boruto movie, I may not have seen the whole film, but I DID see a key scene from it on YouTube. It was the final battle of Naruto and Sasuke vs Momoshiki. In particular, the badass scene of Sasuke encasing Naruto's fox construct inside of his Susanoo was directly lifted from that scene, and I admit it, the animation there looks really great!

The title for this chapter came from the song featured in this chapter, "Immortals" by Fall Out Boy. For those of you who don't know, it was the main song from "Big Hero 6," and I have been waiting a long time to find the right place to insert it. I broke the song up into chunks this time so it can cover several scenes throughout the battle. Like with all my song choices, try playing it as you read the chapter.

Before the song starts, there is a flashback I threw in while Naruto is loosing his Kamehameha-esc beam struggle (err, Tailed Beast Ball vs Power Gem struggle) with KaijUragi. The flashback is taken from Chapter 7 of one of my other fanfics, "Naruto's Big Day." In all honesty, Naruto's inauguration scene from that chapter is one of the proudest things I've written so far, so I am pleased that I was able to include it.

There was also a brief tease of another song in here, sung by Randamu: "We Are The Champions" by Queen. At least, before the other shut Randamu up because they just didn't want deal with his crap right now.

It was also nice to see the reunion between Kushina and Mebuki, after I'd established they had been friends back in Chapter 4 of "Heaven and Earth Together At Last."

I have no idea where I got the idea of that little bet going on between Naruto and Sasuke, except maybe that I thought it would a more mature and friendly callback to their rivalry during the series. I don't know, I guess placing a bet where the loser had to treat the winner's family to dinner and buy them drinks seemed like something they'd do in their mid thirties.

In speaking of Naruto and Sasuke, I did have them rip into each other pretty hard at the start of this one, but while normally Sakura would be the one to break up these sorts of childish squabbles, I knew that it would be a waste not to have Kushina do it instead. Lets face it, there's no way the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero would ever put up with either of their shit! And if you don't believe me, go watch the Road to Ninja movie and see what happens when "Menma" refuses to join his parents for dinner. Kiba and Shikamaru were right, mom's can be scary...

Lets see, any other references...oh yeah! When Uragi is bragging about his apparent godhood to the two of them before the kaiju battle starts, Sasuke makes his awkward one-liner "We eat gods for breakfast." That was obviously an homage to their defeat of Kaguya, but the line itself is lifted from "Ghostbusters: The Video Game," where Egon says it in the final cut scene of the game.

In speaking of Kaguya, Uragi is actually referring to her when he is consumed with his power and reaches up the to sky and says "Even the Moon herself cowers before me." You could take that as a tip of the hat to The Last if you want, since I understand that the Moon plays a significant role in that story. But, like Sasuke's bad one-liner, Uragi's line is also a tribute to another source, in this case the classic 1933 Universal film "The Invisible Man," where Jack Griffin proclaims everyone, even the Moon, to be frightened of him and his new power.

I believe that's all I have for this one. Thank you all so much for reading you guys, thank you also for voting, and I hope to see you back for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	51. Chapter 48--Sacrifice

What's up everyone, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Thank you all one again for your continued support and for your patience. I will warn you up front that there are going to be a couple of really big surprises in this chapter, which I will discuss further at the end.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 48: Sacrifice**

Uragi floated out of the crater, his body engulfed in the crimson chakra of the Power Gem. He glared in fury at the large gathering of shinobi that had assembled around his crater. "FOOLS!" he shouted. "You think power such as mine can be quenched so easily?! You will all suffer for your ignorance!"

The Taka leader held out his hand pointing it directly at Naruto, Sasuke and their family's. "As I said before, this world's reconstruction ends now."

Uragi's hand glowed red with raw power. Naruto and Sasuke gathered their loved ones behind him as he stared down his enemy and braced himself for the worst...

...The sudden sensation of death never came. Instead, it was something far worse. Uragi suddenly pointed his hand away from them and towards the city above the Hokage Rock! A powerful beam of crimson chakra was milliseconds from destroying the entire city, claiming thousands of lives in the process...

* * *

Within those buildings, people were screaming, the beam was shot in their exact direction and there was no time to evacuate anyone down to the street. many cried, many prayed, others had to simply accept the terrible truth. This was the end...

On the street level, the city was quickly overcome with utter chaos. The strange, horrible crimson creature was about to destroy them all as a red wave of death rapidly approached them. Villagers and citizens fled their transports, people stepped on one another as they ran in panic, though some still stopped to help one another up and the make the futile attempt to get to safety. People trapped on electric trains were panicking since they had no way to escape at all.

The red beam was nearly there. It was rapidly passing over the Hokage Rock. The sky had turned a mix of red and white. This was the end. The Reaper had come for them all...

* * *

"SAND BARRIER!"

Thank goodness Gaara was perfectly alert and quick to react to Uragi's attempted surprise attack. His sand, empowered by the chakra of his beloved mother Karura, instantly shot out of its gourd and formed an impenetrable stone shield around the entire city. Long ago he had defended his own village against the Akatsuki in a similar manner, but now he was pouring every once of his chakra into his sand to defend the home of his friend and the thousands of innocent lives that lived above that mighty rock.

Having said that, defending an entire village from Deidara's explosions was one thing. The sheer force of the Power Gem was greater than anything he had ever held back before. Absolute Defense or no, Rasa's gold dust or no, Gaara's sand was still sand, and it was trying to hold back the force of a god!

'Naruto...forgive me...I...I don't think...'

"SAND FIST!"

Sunako came to her father's rescue by using her own living sand to literally create a giant fist made out of sand. The attack was sudden enough, and Uragi was so concentrated on braking through Gaara's barrier that the he did not have the time to react to the giant punch. This resulted in him taking the blow and his attack becoming discontinued.

SAND COFFIN!"

A wall of sand then rapidly encased the Taka leader in a stone hard cocoon. Spikes were laced within to poke the enemy encased inside.

When the red chakra finally dissipated, Gaara summoned his sand back into his gourd. He'd saved the city, him and his daughter. The Fixth Kazekage fell to his knees as he huffed and puffed for breath.

"Gaara!" Naruto shouted as he ran over to his friend, crouching down at his side. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes...Yes I'm fine...Arigato Naruto."

"Gaara," Naruto said as he helped his friend to stand back up. "You saved my entire city today. You save thousands of lives that weren't even your own. This village owes you their lives."

In a rare moment, Gaara offered up a genuine smile. "Let them know that it is my daughter they should thank. I would have been overwhelmed if not for her."

The youngest Sand Sibling looked on at his daughter with pride. 'Sunako, thank you. I am proud of the strong kunoichi you've become...And your mother would be too.'

"Way to go Sunako!" Chōchō proclaimed in pride, pumping her fist into the air.

"Nice going cousin!" Shikadai exclaimed, actually showing some positive enthusiasm for a change.

"Yeah! Way to go!" Shinachiku gave a thumbs up.

Their praise was short lived however, because at that moment the Sand Barrier broke apart with burst of red chakra.

"Enough games! I'm going to disintegrate this corrupt excuse for a village! Now, prepare to—OH!"

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Burandon Lee, the youngest of the Lee clan and the newest inheritor of the Springtime of Youth, leaped out of the crowd and did something truly miraculous: he landed a kick right to the face of a glowing red demigod!

"YOSH!" Buradon proclaimed. "Take that Uragi! Evil such as yours is no match for the Springtime of Youth or out alliance of justice!"

"YES!" Lee shouted at the top of his voice with over-exaggerated manly tears streaming from his eyes. "Excellent form Burandon! You have done your father proud this day."

"Booyah!" Tenten shouted as she pumped her fist in the air. "That's my son!"

Neji was in the crowd and even he was smirking. 'So that boy is Lee and Tenten's son...Impressive...Most impressive...'

Uragi was getting back up, his red chakra flaring again. "Stupid boy! You dare to strike a god?!" The monster that was once a man was about to fire yet another blast of chakra at the green-clad Genin...until he fund that none of his limbs were able to move a muscle. "WHAT! What is this!"

Shikadai had the traitor right where he wanted him. He had his clan Shadow Possession Jutsu holding Uragi in place and leaving him unable to move a muscle. "You can't move Uragi! Surrender or suffer the consequences!"

"Never!"

"Fine!" Shikadai threw the demigod in the air with his shadow before rapidly slamming him back to solid ground. "INO!

The pale-skinned Genin was quick to come to attention at his teammate's alert. Whipping out his sketchpad, he quickly doodled a giant bear and then brought it to life. The crudely drawn ink-beast slashed away at the traitor, catching it in his teeth.

"SHIKA!

Inojin's ink bear threw Uragi back in Shikadai's direction. The boy slammed the traitor around a couple more times before throwing him back towards the ink bear again. But this time Inojin used the jutsu he had developed himself to project the beast directly into the enemy's mind, causing even someone of his power to fall to his knees and grab his head in agony.

"CHO!"

That was Chōchō's cue to finish things. Using her clan's techniques, she enlarged her fist to enormous levels and delivered the finishing blow, creating a small crater in the earth and completing the Ino-Shika-Cho formation for the new generation.

On the sidelines, Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji were smiling on, as were Sai, Temari and Karui at their sides.

"Bagu!" Shikadai shouted as Uragi was standing up again. "Do it!"

"SECRET TECHNIQUE: BULLET STING BARRAGE!"

The Aburame boy quickly got the message and shot out a swarm of bees and wasps from the sleeves of his jacket at high speed. They shot at the enemy and gave their lives to stop this powerful enemy. Some of them got close, but Uragi merely used the power of the gem to incinerate any and all of the bugs before they even had chance of stinging him.

"Foolish boy!" Uragi fumed. "Did you _really_ think a bunch of insects could stand against my power?!"

"No," Bagu stated matter-of-factly. "But I did expect them to serve as a worthy distraction."

Bagu's teammates, the twins, got back into their familiar position that they were in back in the prison. With their ninken at their side, they both activated their kekki genki.

"BYAKUGAN!" The shouted as one as their mother's clans signature abilities was activated.

"Akamoro! Come on boy!"

"You too Akamiri!"

At the boy and girl's respective commands, the two dogs came to their masters sides and together they transformed into identical copies of the twins via the Inuzuka clan's Beast Human Clone Technique. Glowing with chakra, the four of them got on all fours, the real twin's Byakugan still activated and their nails became claw-like and their teeth fang-like. They all pounced on the enemy together like a pack of wild animals. The fury of the Inuzuka bloodline paired with the sight of the Byakugan allowed the twins to target the traitor's chakra network.

"EIGHT TRIGRAMS, SIXTY-FOUR PALMS! TWIN FANG PASSING FANG!"

Ōkami, Tsuki, Akamoro and Akamiri spun in a coordination with each other at ferocious speed to deliver a barrage of powerful, bestial attacks that suddenly became precise and focused on close proximity, the blows aimed directly and the enemy's chakra points and the body's pressure points.

But it was at this point that Uragi had enough of this game and released a pulse wave of red chakra, breaking off the attack and knocking both of the children and their dogs backward in a hard collision, their transformation jutsu undoing itself in the process.

"KIDS!" Kiba and Hinata yelled in shock as they both ran over to their children, Akamaru running alongside them. Neji and Hanabi were quick to follow, followed by Hiashi, Hana and Tsumi.

"Kids, are you alright?" Hinata questioned in panic.

"W-We're alright mom." Tsuki answered.

"Bah!" Uragi spat. "I'll teach you kids to get in my way!"

The crimson-coated monster shot a beam of red chakra out of his finger. It was aimed straight at the female Hyūga twin!

"TSUKI! LOOK OUT!"

Without even thinking, Ōkami pushed his sister out of the way of the beam. Instead, the beam passed straight through the male twin's chest!

"ONIICHAAAAAANNNNNN!"

Tsuki screamed out loud as the family, and everyone else, could only stare on in horror at what had just happened. Blood splattered over the battlefield as the boy fell to his knees and then face first to the ground.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Hinata's scream echoed across the Hidden Leaf Village. There were no other sounds to distort her voice as she took her precious little boy in her arms and was unable to stop crying uncontrollably. Kiba could do nothing but cry himself he hugged his wife.

Tsuki was only able to stand there in utter horror. Her brother, her twin, had just taken a lethal blow for _her_. She'd thought he'd hated her, all they'd ever done was fight all the time. And yet here he'd just made the ultimate sacrifice without a second thought.

"Oniichan!" Tsuki ran over to her fallen brother and tried desperately to shack him awake. "Oniichan! Oniichan! Oniichan!"

The rest of the family looked on in sadness. Hanabi was fighting every urge in her body to bring her niece into her arms, to give her sister an enormous hug, but she couldn't. She could not bring herself to move from her spot. She could not bring herself to tare the girl away from the boy with whom she was had literally shared her entire life...until now.

Neji could only stare on at the scene is total sadness and, oddly, a euphoric sense of bewilderment. He had been in this situation before. Years ago he died to save both Hinata and Naruto from the wrath of the Ten-Tails, and now here he was alive again, watching Hinata's own son doing the same for his twin sister.

He found himself taking a step towards the grieving girl, his arm and hand outstretched. "Tsuki—"

"Ugh..."

A groaning noise cut Neji off. It came from none other than the injured boy himself. The family looked down to see his eyes were slowing opening up as he looked up at the crying face of his sister.

Ōkami could only say two words to her and he smiled. "Hey sis."

That was all it took. Tsuki completely broke down and wrapped her arms around her brother as she cried her eyes out. "Why?! Why did you do that?! WHY?!"

"Because..." Ōkami coughed up some blood before he continued. "...Because annoying-ass Shinachiku was right."

"W-What?"

The boy's mind drifted back to before this whole battle began, back to when they were deciding teams to undertake different objectives for the mission to stop Taka...

* * *

_Kurenai chimed in with her team's role in the plan. "Meanwhile, I'll be leading Ōkami, Tsuki and Bagu in locating the children's parents."_

_"Ah man!" Ōkami complained again. "Why do I have to be put on the same team as my sister?"_

_"Because we need both of your Byakugan's and your heightened senses, plus Bagu's insects, to sniff out our parent's location, that's why!" Shinachiku asserted back._

_"Makes sense to me," Bagu agreed._

_"But—?"_

_"Ōkami," Shinachiku said, "I can tell you from experience that having a sibling is something that's really special. It's a bond that is unlike any other in the whole world, and I can only assume that its even stronger for twins...Maybe you'll finally come to appreciate that before this day is over?"_

_The Inuzuka-Hyūga boy took in what his blonde-haired friend had just told him before he looked to his own twin sister. Something seemed to come over him for a moment before his stubbornness took over again and he just huffed it off. Tsuki frowned at her brother's stubbornness._

* * *

"Oniichan..."

Ōkami took his sister's hand in his own and smiled again. "Don't...Don't tell teacher's pet I admitted to any of this...I don't...I don't want him ruining my image..." The boy lightly chuckled at that last part.

"But onii—"

"Take care of yourself sis. I love you..." And with that, the boy passed out.

There was a wave of sadness that came over everyone. The female twin kept on weeping as did the mother and father. Even Akamoro whimpered as it rubbed its nose against its master's body in sadness.

Around them, all off their friends were feeling the same. But then, all of a sudden, Karin detected a spark.

"Wait! I can still feel his chakra! The boy's alive!"

Sakura didn't even hesitate! She quickly dashed over to the Inuzuka-Hyūga family to do a check up on their fallen child.

"Its true," Sakura said with a hopeful smile to her dear friend Hinata. "Your son is going to live." She smiled as Hinata's eyes came back to life and she dried her tears. "That blast didn't hit any vital organs but he _is_ loosing a lot of blood. I'm going to need to work fast!"

Immediately, Sakura got serious and released her seal as she focused her chakra and her hands glowed green. She concentrated on the damaged chest and back both to stop the blood loss and to regrow the damaged tissue and muscles as quickly as possible.

Shinachiku smiled in pride as he finally got over his own sadness at his friend's near-death experience. 'My mom is the greatest...'

"Oniichan?"

"Huh?" Shinachiku said as he looked down to see his own sister tugging on his jacket.

"Is Ōkami going to be alright?"

"Yeah...Yeah he'll be fine Hanami. Mom's gonna make him all better. You'll see."

"As if any of that will matter!"

Everyone turned their heads to face the source of the voice. It was none other than the one responsible for the poor boy's predicament in the first place. Uragi continued ranting. "You people see now?! The cycle of hatred is all-consuming! So long as the ninja world exists there will always be death! There will always be destruction. It is only be going to the extreme and to cleanse to pallet can this world begin anew. It is only then that true peace can be restored—"

**"OH SHUT UP!"**

The entire crowd went silent at the sound of Shinachiku Uzumaki's angry outburst. "Who the hell are you to talk about death and destruction old man?! You keep talking about how Taka's going to remake the world and bring a new era of peace. Well guess what?! You're all no better than the very evil you claim to be fighting! In fact, you're even **worse!** You've become so consumed with you're own hatred that you no longer know **what** you're fighting for anymore! You want to stop the cycle of hatred, yet you **admit** to hating my dad! You say all of us are monsters? **You're** the one that turned into the giant to try to kill thousands of lives! Can't you see, you've allowed yourself to become everything you hate and more. We're not the monsters Uragi! **YOU** are!"

There was a thunderous applause as the boy finished his rant, him having said exactly what was on everyone's mind. Naruto and Sakura smiled in pride at their son, as did Sasuke. Sarada blushed as she took the boy's hand into her own.

Uragi, on the other hand, was not swayed. "Who are you to talk to me boy?! You and the girl were seduced by the Power Gem yourselves!"

"You're right, I was. But that's the difference between you and me Uragi, I was able to break free of it. Do you know why?" He gripped his old friend's hand tightly as he smiled at her. "Because I have her...And she has me." He looked around as his entire family and friends were surrounding him. "And we have all of them! That's the difference between you and me Uragi! I have the power of everyone I love. You? You're **alone**."

There was a calm gust of wind that swept across the battlefield as silence crept in. Sakura had finished healing up Ōkami's wounds and so she left him to go join her own family while the boy's family swarmed upon him.

Uragi said nothing for several moments. He appeared calm...morose...contemplative. The crimson chakra never left his form, but it did seem as though maybe, just maybe, there was some beacon of hope that the boy's words might have gotten through to him somehow.

"You make quite an argument boy. Maybe I have become everything I hate? But then again...If that is the price I have to pay to rebuild this world...**Then so be it!**"

That was when any sense of reality stopped. Uragi fired another blast of intense power out from his hand. It was aimed straight at Shinachiku himself!

"SHINA!" Naruto, Sakura, Minato, Kushina, Konohamaru, and many of their friends all exclaimed in horror as the beam shot straight out at the young blonde warrior.

Reacting quickly, Shinachiku did the only thing he could think of in that moment. He shoved both Sarada and Hanami away from him, anything he could do to save them from becoming consumed by the blast themselves.

**"SHINA!"** Sarada screamed.

**"ONIICHAN!"** Hanami screamed.

There was no time to react. This was the end. Here, now, in this moment, as a wave of the very same power that had nearly consumed his soul before now rushed to end his life, this was going to be the end of Shinachiku Uzumaki's first adventure...

...

...

And then, at the last moment, a fully grown man with one arm and raven black hair leaped in front of the blast. His one arm was outstretched as if trying to shield the boy from what otherwise would have been his fate.

**"AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"**

The man screamed as he took the full force of Uragi's attack. The power was far too much even for someone as powerful as himself to handle.

The wave passed by. The body was charred and bloodied and broken. The victim fell over.

Sasuke Uchiha was dying.

...

...

There were no words. No sounds. No _anything_ that could be heard for several seconds as the entire crowd stared in horror at what just happened. Shinachiku, Sarada, Karin, Naruto, Sakura, everyone was stunned.

At last, it was Karin's voice that cut the silence. **"SASUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"**

Sasuke's entire family ran over at top speed. Sakura already had her hands glowing green and Karin was lowering her collar for her husband to bite down on.

"Sasuke!" Karin shouted. "Hurry! Bite down on my shoulder! I'll heal you!"

"Don't you die on us!" Sakura demanded as she started healing the damage to his body.

"N-No...It's...too...late..."

"DAD!" Sarada ran right up to her father and the quickly wrapped her arms around him, tears already forming in her eyes. "Dad please?!"

Sasuke, very weakly, wrapped his arm around his daughter as he put on the best smile he could. "Its going to be alright Sarada...its going to be alright..."

Shinachiku hadn't moved from his spot. He couldn't. He still hadn't gotten over his terror over what had just happened. "U-Uncle...Why? WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" The boy demanded an answer from his godfather, demanding not out of anger, but out of desperation.

"I don't know kid...My body...just acted...on its own... You...Shina...are my friend's child...my godson... I couldn't let you die..."

"Uncle Sasuke..."

"Damn it Sasuke!" Naruto shouted kneeling over his best friend with tears already running down his face. "You saved my son! But you didn't have to get yourself killed doing it!"

He took his best friend's hand into his own. "Don't...Don't cry for me Naruto... I...finally make amends."

"W-What are you saying?"

"I've done so much wrong...I've caused so much pain...I've caused _you_ so much pain."

"Stop—"

"You all have done too much for me...To bring home this fool who didn't deserve your love."

"Stop it—"

"My life for your son's...My debt is repaid..."

**"STOP IT!"** Naruto would hear none of this! "Stop talking cool like you're going out in some blaze of glory! You're not dying today you hear?! I wont allow it! You're going to live damn it! You're going to live with your fine wife and your beautiful daughter! You're going to grow old with the rest of us! Y-You're going to—"

"NARUTO!" Sakura's voice stopped him from his impassioned, desperate speech. Snapping his head in her direction, he could clearly see the tears pooling in her eyes. All she could do was shake her head in regret.

His wife was the most famous medical ninja in the world, so he knew exactly what that meant. He looked back to see that Karin was pressing her lips to his dying best friend's lips. She looked like an utter mess.

"Sasuke, don't you leave me! Don't you leave us!"

"It's alright Karin—"

"**NO!** I won't let you! Sarada and I won't let you!"

"We all make our fates for ourselves. I've lived a life. If I had just let any you go...I really would...have been just trash. R-Right...Kakashi-sensei?"

The others turned to see that, indeed, Kakashi had walked over to the group and, appearing very sad, nodded his head. Suigetsu, Jūgo and Randamu had come over with him, bearing witness to their fallen friend.

Turning to his former pink-haired teammate, he summed up everything he had to say to her in two words: "I'm sorry..."

She couldn't help it. She broke down in another fit of tears, and this time she was taken in to the arms of her also crying husband who buried her head in his chest.

Sasuke turned to Shinachiku again. "Take care of her kid." That was all he had to say.

And so, with the last speck of life left in him, he looked at the faces of the two people that meant to more to him than anyone else in the entire world. "Karin...Sarada...I...I...l-love..."

The sentence was never finished. The body stiffened. Sasuke Uchiha was dead.

**"SASUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"**

* * *

...

...

...

Sasuke found himself in a void. A beautiful void of pink and white. It was the most calming, majestic place he'd ever been, and even though he had never seen this place before, he knew exactly where he was nevertheless.

"Heh. So this is the Pure Land huh?"

"Indeed it is."

Sasuke turned his head to look behind him, he saw a tall figure, about as tall and himself. In fact, most of this person's features greatly resembled his own. The man had onyx eyes under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with center-parted bangs that extended to his chin. He was dressed in mesh armor with navy accents under an identical T-shirt with a simple white belt around the waist and dark blue pants. He wore purple nail polish on his fingers and toes and a necklace that had three silver rings with red gems inside them.

If Sasuke was surprised to see this man, he did not show it. Instead, he merely smirked and let out one quiet chuckle. "Heh. I should have guessed you'd be here to welcome me."

"Naturally, although I was not expecting it to happen so soon...little brother."

Sasuke stood there and let the weight of this reunion sink in for a long few seconds. "...Well, I suppose you and I going to have plenty of time to catch up."

The man very slightly smirked, as if he already knew something else that his younger brother did not... "You didn't get the time to say everything you wanted to them."

The young sibling allowed only the barest of emotion to register. "Not as much as I wanted to, no." He sighed. "I suppose there's nothing more that can be done about it n—**OOFFFF!**"

Sasuke's sentence was cut off by the other man when he'd punched him right in the stomach. He didn't fall over, but Sasuke did have to back up and hold onto his gut as he glared up at his welcomer. "What the hell?!"

"How dare you?! I will never forgive you for this Sasuke!"

"For **what?!**"

The younger Uchiha brother actually appeared perturbed. "Excuse me?"

"I once left you without a family, an orphan, and because of me you walked down a dark path you nearly failed to escape from. And now you have the audacity to place the same burden on my only niece?!"

"You think I don't care about that?! She still has Karin! Naruto and Sakura will help raise her! He's like her second father."

"Naruto is **not** her father Sasuke. **You** are."

"...Not anymore."

The man walked right up to his guest and stared him straight in the eye. "Listen to me. I sacrificed everything to make sure you lived a full, healthy life and restored our clan. And we'll all be damned if I see you throw all that away now!"

Sasuke paused. "_We?_"

Itachi's expression seemed to change on a dime. He smiled, yes, he genuinely smiled as a few more faces appeared behind him. The first was a man with short, brown hair that reached to his shoulders and onyx-colored eyes, with visible creases below them made more pronounced whenever he adopted a stern look. He wore a simple kimono with grey pants which had the Uchiha clan's symbol on the back.

The other person was a woman with fair-skin and long, straight black hair with bangs hanging on either side of her face to roughly frame her cheeks and black eyes. She wore a simple dark purple blouse with a red-plum skirt and a light-yellow apron worn over it.

If Sasuke was able to keep his emotions in check from seeing his older brother again, he completely failed this time. This was Sasuke Uchiha, infamously cool, dead serious, never emotional about anything. But this...seeing these two people standing before him now, that was what it took to finally break him.

"Mother...Father..."

Mikoto Uchiha smiled warmly as she held open her arms. "Hello Sasuke, its been too long."

Sasuke ran right into the woman's arms. He wrapped his one remaining arm around his mother tightly, as if he were afraid that he would never see her again. Mikoto just smiled warmly and returned the hug.

"I never thought I'd see you again."

"Hush my son. We've always been with you, and we always will."

After they finally broke the hug, Sasuke turned to the other person in his presence. "Father?"

"It has been a long time Sasuke. I can see you've grown into a fine man and a powerful ninja. I am proud of you."

"I.." Sasuke, for once, fond himself at a loss for words. "I can't believe all of you are here. Father, after what Itachi had done—"

"Bah! Resentment and hatred have little place here. After your mother and I passed on we saw your brother's actions for what they were. We understood."

"But he _murdered_ you?"

"But he _sparred_ you? I am indebted to him for this."

The familiar sternness in Fugaku's voice told Sasuke that the old man was totally sincere. "How much have you seen?"

"Your whole life," Fugaku answered. "We've seen your quest to avenge our deaths and those of our clan. We've seen the downward spiral of self-destruction you allowed yourself to follow in pursuit of that goal. And we've seen all you've done to redeem yourself from those sins ever since."

"We even saw you start a family of your own and we've been watching that beautiful granddaughter of ours." Mikoto said.

Sasuke took all of this in. This feeling was still almost too much for him. Still, he did find himself with questions he wanted answered. "The rest of our clan?"

"They are here. We will tell them you miss them," Mikoto said.

"The kages?"

"All here and at peace, except for Minato that is."

"...Obito?"

This caused Mikoto to sweat drop as she slightly blushed. "Eh...He and Rin are busy reacquainting with themselves right now dear."

"I don't understand. Busy doing wh—?" Sasuke suddenly blushed bright red when he caught on to what his mother was suggesting. "Oh...Never mind then."

"Sasuke," Itachi interrupted, "I'm afraid our time here is short."

The younger Uchiha looked around at the void surrounding them and then back at his brother. "Well, its not like I have anywhere to go."

Itachi smirked again. "Don't you?"

...

...

...

* * *

**"Kit!"**

"Huh?!"

Shinachiku panicked as he heard a voice in his head! He quickly turned around, drawing his favorite kunai. The tears from his godfather's death were still staining his face.

His parents were both too caught up in their grief to pay any attention to him, nor were Karin and Sarada. He did not recognize a voice so deep and gravelly. "Who are you?"

**"Think what you want to say kit. Don't talk to me out loud or your friends will all think you're crazy!"**

In light of the sudden weirdness of this impromptu conversation, Shinachiku decided that the best thing he could do was to just take the strange voice's advice. 'Okay...Who are you?'

**"Don't you know kit? You've read your father's book so many times that I would have thought it would be obvious."**

There was a slight pause before the boy's mind clicked in realization. 'You're Kurama.'

**"Yes."**

'But how? How can you be talking to _me?!_ You're supposed to be sealed inside my dad—?"

**"When you and your sister were conceived I established a neural link between us so I could communicate with either of you should the need arise."**

'How did you do that?'

**"When you were conceived I poured some of my chakra into your father's semen."**

_'WHAT?!'_

**"Shut up and listen to me kit! We don't have much time! Do you want to save your godfather?"**

'W-What? But...But Uncle Sasuke's—?"

**"DO YOU WANT TO SAVE HIM?!"**

'Yes!'

**"Then listen to me very carefully. I need you to let me in."**

'I don't—"

**"Yes you do. Remember the Valley of the End?"**

The fox's meaning clicked very quickly for the boy. 'No...No not again! I can't turning into that again! Not after what I almost did to Sarada—'

**"This won't be like last time kit! Then you weren't in sync with me. Then I hadn't spoken to you. Then you were so consumed with rage and lust for power that you didn't even know you were draining my power. **_**This**_** Time I am **_**giving**_** it to you."**

'Y-You would do that?'

**"Don't tell anyone I said this kit but...I've grown fond of your father...and of you through him. I can give you some of my chakra anytime you wish it, but at the price of sapping strength directly from your father. The more you take from me, the more you take from him. Do you understand?"**

'I-I think so.'

**"Good. Then close your eyes and focus. I know you're afraid, but if you want to give that girl her father back then you're going to need to take a chance kid. You need to face your fear of what you were and take control of it!"**

Shinachiku took a very long, deep breath. 'For Sarada...'

**"Heh. Good for you kit. Now listen, once this is done, there's something else you'll need to do to bring your uncle back..."**

* * *

Seconds later, Shinachiku's eyes snapped open again. They had a sense of power and authority to them as his body suddenly transformed. An orange shroud of chakra engulfed him. A literal tail of chakra appeared behind him. It was much like what had happened to him back at the Valley of the End. And yet the boy was not behaving like some wild animal crouched down on his hands and knees as the sheer mass of power engulfed him. No, this time he was standing upright. He stood tall and proud.

Naruto felt power draining from inside his body again. But this time he smirked. 'That's my boy.'

The Nine-Tails tails had given the blonde his power again. But this time it was the fox's choice, done with the boy's consent. It was a partnership, a decision made in tandem, not some uncontrolled ciphering of demonic chakra while in a state of rage.

Everybody stared at the boy's new form. Only Sarada had seen him like this before now, and back then he was out of control. Naruto and Sakura could not believe their eyes.

"S-Shina..." Sakura uttered with her hand over her mouth.

Minato and Kushina did not say anything, but neither of them could believe their eyes, that their own grandson, not a jinchūriki, was clearly harnessing the Nine-Tail's power nevertheless.

Konohamaru could not believe his eyes either. There he was, his star student, and he was suddenly showcasing a power he had never known he'd possessed before. 'Shina...'

Hanami stared at her brother with wide eyes, only a little bit scared at the power resonating from the one she admired more than anybody in the whole world. "Oniichan...?"

All of Shinachiku's friends—Shikadai, Inojin, Chōchō, Ōkami, Tsuki, Bagu, Burandon, Sunako—were utterly stunned, and some of them were even a tad scared. Some of them (like the newly healed Ōkami) even had their jaws literally hit the floor in shock.

The same could be said for most of the adult ninja in attendance. From Shikamaru and Sai to Ino and Hinata. From Lee and Shino to Jiraiya and Tsunade. Even Gaara and the other kages were looking on is fascination.

"Sarada." The bifocaled Uchiha girl looked up to her dear friend upon hearing her name. "I'll bring your father back. I promise."

The girl didn't even get her chance to respond and he dashed like mad towards Uragi. The old man saw the attack coming and fired a blast of crimson chakra directly at him. However, Kurama's abilities enhanced the boy's natural ninja speed and he dodged the blast. Instead, Shinachiku extended a singular chakra arm that grasped at the enhanced being, the arm being made of pure chakra as well meant that it could handle the intense power more easily than regular hands could.

Uragi blasted the arm apart, but it was quick to regenerate. The arm pinned Uragi down and that chakra arm extended a second chakra arm out from within itself. The second chakra arm, with great effort, pushed its way through the barrier of Uragi crimson chakra cloak and pulled something out of the old man's pocket.

It was just as the fox had told the boy. When Uragi attempted to use the brainwashed kages against them back at the orphanage, Shinachiku claimed the Mind Gem from him and Sarada was still holding onto it after their fight back in the Valley. When their parents defeated the old man the first time, they reclaimed the Space Gem from him and still carried it now. The Power Gem, the one for which this entire adventure first began just to find, now lay in the heart of Uragi's chest and was fueling his incredible power. It would have to be removed for victory to be claimed this day.

But first, there was still one more chakra gem that the enemy had on him. One that had caused so much grief for his family and friends, one that defied the very laws of nature, and one that held the secret to bringing Sasuke back from the Pure Land. The Soul Gem, the yellow gem that granted one the power to bring back the dead, needed to be reclaimed.

"NO!"

Uragi released a pulse of red chakra to back to boy away from him. Shinachiku created a trench in the earth as he was pushed back towards the Uzumaki and the Uchiha families.

"Shina?"

The boy turned back to face the girl, smiling as the Nine-Tail's chakra still engulfed him. He opened his had to reveal a small, yellow gem he was holding in his hand.

Sarada's eyes widened in realization. 'The Soul Gem...Dad...'

"Shina, what's—?"

"I'll explain later mom, right now there's something I need to do."

Standing in front of the body of the fallen shinobi warrior, Shinachiku closed his eyes and focused his mind. 'Please, let this work...'

The boy knew what he wanted, and soon the gem began to glow with an blinding yellow light...

* * *

...

...

...

Sasuke felt something strange. He felt as though his entire body was becoming heavier, almost as though some great, significant weight that he had lost since arriving here was suddenly being thrust upon him again.

"What? What is this?"

Itachi answered, "I'm afraid our time together is nearly up Sasuke. They are calling you back home."

"What? But how—?"

"Have you forgotten that Taka has a chakra gem that can bring back the dead?"

Sasuke did not answer the question; his black stare and the blush across his face said it all for him.

"Your part in the material world is not yet complete. You still have a part left to play."

"And what is that?"

"Being the father that Sarada needs."

Sasuke felt the weight of what was happening bearing down upon him as he could already feel the pink void turning white and see his father, mother and brother all fading away.

"NO! No please! I just found all of you! I can't loose you again!"

"Sasuke," Fugaku said. "You will never loose us."

"We will always be with you..." Mikoto told him as she pointed at his chest. "...Here, inside of your heart."

"Mother..."

Mikoto embraced her son in one final hug. "We will always love you Sasuke."

"You've gone through much son, and you've made our clan proud," Fugaku assured him.

Itachi took a step forward and stood directly in front of his brother, and then he tapped him upon the forehead. "We will meet again."

Sasuke felt at peace. It was the kind of peace that he hadn't felt since he was only a small child. He family was in a better place, he knew this now, and maybe, just maybe, he could truly move on. "At least this time I get to say goodbye."

"Sasuke," Itachi said as he continued disappearing, "promise me something would you?"

"What is it?"

"Tell my niece that her uncle and her grandparents said hello."

"And tell Kushina and Mebuki that I miss them," Mikoto added.

"We'll see you on the other side Sasuke," Fugaku stated.

Itachi got in the final world. "Little brother, life is precious. Enjoy it for as long as it lasts...Oh, and maybe reconsider finally growing that arm back."

And with that, Sasuke watched as his family faded away, and along with it the Pure Land itself.

...

...

...

* * *

On the battlefield outside of Konoha, the eyes of Sasuke Uchiha blinked open again. It took only a moment for Sasuke to realize where he was, or that the faces of all his friends and family were staring down at him.

**"Sasuke!"** Karin's, Sakura's and Naruto's voices all merged into one and the three of them all leaped in a hugged him all at once. For once, Sasuke was comfortable with it.

"Hey everyone..." He said little else before he was tackled to the ground by his absolutely ecstatic daughter. "DAD!"

The Uchiha wrapped his arm around her and whispered: "Forgive me Sarada."

"I love you so much daddy..."

The girl's father planted a kiss upon her forehead. "Your grandparents and your uncle says 'hi.'"

Leaving the stunned girl to process that revelation, he stood up and went over to the blonde-haired boy that was responsible for his resurrection. "Nice work kid." That pretty much said it all, though he did take notice of the shroud of red chakra that was still enveloping his godson. "I like the new look."

Shinachiku smiled, "I'm glad you're back Uncle Sasuke."

Sasuke smirked before ruffling the boy's hair. "Me too kid."

"Hey Sasuke?!"

The Uchiha turned to see his other three teammates standing there in surprise, not to mention their bewilderment, that their friend and team leader was back in the land of the living again.

"Hey guys," Sasuke said simply with a wave.

Randamu suddenly broke the 'Fourth Wall' yet again and spoke to some non-existent audience. "Okay, so..._that_ sure was an anticlimactic death, huh audience? Way to take risks there writer!"

Shinachiku powered down the Nine-Tail's power as he walked away from his godfather and back over to the girl he'd kept his promise to. "See, I told you I'd bring him b—UUH!"

The blonde was cut off when he felt Sarada wrap her arms tightly around his neck and slam her lips onto his own. 'She's kissing me...She's...HOLY CRAP! Sarada's KISSING ME!'

On instinct, Shinachiku wrapped his arms around her waist and closed his eyes, losing himself into the kiss.

Neither of the children knew how long they remained like that, but eventually the time came that they needed a break for air...Of course, when they did, they both blushed an extremely deep shade of red.

"I, umm...You're welcome."

"Y-Yeah, umm...Arigato for saving my dad."

"Yeah."

"HEY!" Sasuke shouted not only to his team but to everyone. "You lovebirds can kiss and make up later! Right now..." He stared down the still glowing red enemy that was now glaring furiously at all of them. "...Right now we still have some trash that needs to be thrown out."

Naruto caught on and pointed directly at his enemy, reactivating his Sage of Six Paths Mode once again, his father Minato entering his own Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode in the background. "URAGI! This is the end!"

Sakura slammed her fist into her palm and she primed up her chakra control. "You've destroyed my family for the last time!"

"Nobody messes with my dad!" Sarada took the blonde's hand into her own. "Or my _boyfriend!_"

Shinachiku blushed momentarily before he got over it and smiled back at her, a smile which she returned herself. Neither of them shared another word before they came back together for another kiss, this one a lot shorter that the first but just as romantic.

Breaking the kiss, Shinachiku went back to ciphering some of Kurama's power from his father and made his bold declaration. "Uragi! You have betrayed your village, your people, and yourself! You've attacked my family, my friends, and every man, woman and child in Konoha! NO MORE! In the name and my father, my grandfather, and myself..."

The boy suddenly pulled something out of his pants pocket. I was his own Leaf Village headband he'd been awarded with upon his graduation. Putting it on proudly, he stared down the man-god before him and stuck out his fist in proclamation. **"...I WILL DEFEAT YOU! **_**BELIEVE IT!**_**"**

* * *

This is it! The final battle is upon us! The last showdown against Uragi and the final stand for Konoha is about to kick off and this time Shinachiku is leading the charge with Sarada at his side!

Yes, about that, finally Shianchiku and Sarada are dating! They finally got their big kiss before going into battle one more time. After all the buildup I suspect some of you might be relieved to finally read that...I hope.

The chapter opens up with Uragi firing his blast at the city above Hokage Rock. This is a remnant of an idea I'd had for this chapter that I then changed my mind about. I was going to have Uragi truly act despicable and destroy those skyscrappers and kill hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the process. But as I was writing it I became kind of uncomfortable with it. I think its because it brought up imagery of 9/11 and so many recent catastrophes in the real world that just didn't feel appropriate for this story. So what you see in the beginning before Gaara save the city with his Sand Shield is what remained from that idea.

The chapter is called "Sacrifice," and that pertains to multiple characters in this chapter. The first is one that a lot of you probably did not expect...Ōkami took a bullet aimed for his twin sister. All throughout this story I have had him as the member of this new generation that was the most rude and cantankerous, and both in this story and the related stories I had published up until now played Ōkami and Tsuki's relationship as a parallel to the sibling bond between Shinachiku and Hanami; while Shinachiku is very protective and loving of his sister, Ōkami acts the way most of us might except brother's to treat their siblings, rudely and with bickering. I set up in Chapter 37 that one day Ōkami might learn to appreciate and value his bond with his sibling like Shinachiku has, and this was the moment where that finally paid that off.

Shinachiku also makes a sacrifice in this chapter. In his case, he needs to risk taking in Kurama's power again in order to stand up to Uragi and to keep a promise he makes to Sarada. It makes sense that he would be initially fearful of taking on that kind of power again after it turned him into a bloodthirsty monster the last time. But as I made clear in this chapter, _this_ time he and Kurama were working in tandem; there was a partnership, so it was something he could control much easier, even with his limited experience.

But lets talk about the _true_ act of sacrifice in this chapter...Sasuke's (temporary) death. I know what a lot of you must be thinking: "Why did I bother killing him if I was just going to bring him back to life again by the end of the chapter?" Well, there are a couple of answers to that question.

First, the image of Sasuke fully redeeming himself for all his past mistakes and misdeeds to both Naruto and Sakura by willingly sacrificing himself for the sake of their son was always part of my original plan. I did not know for a long time whether or not I was actually going to kill him, but at the very least, like Ōkami for Tsuki, I knew he had to take a bullet for Shinachiku.

Second, by the time the story had finally gotten to this point, I had already created the Soul Gem, which I had already established Taka had used to bring deceased characters back to life, and not as zombies like with the Impure Reincarnation Jutsu. This meant that the Soul Gem was an obvious Chehkov's Gun and/or Elephant in the Room that, if I did not utilize, would undoubtedly be called out be somebody out there reading and, if none of the character's thought of it, then it would make everybody look really foolish. Furthermore, all but one of the four chakra gems seen in this story have been shown as a weapon both for great good and great evil. The Mind Gem brainwashed many into becoming servants for Taka, yet it also freed many of them from their enslavement and Sarada used it to calm the Power Gem's effect on Shinachiku's mind. The Space Gem has been used as a quick teleportation device both by the heroes and the villains. It was time for the Soul Gem to fulfill a similar mandate.

Lastly...look, whether Sasuke actually stays dead or not isn't what's truly important here. What's important about it is that Sasuke is willing made that choice himself and did so without regrets. That represents that he has finally come full circle and made amends for the harm he had done to both of his teammates in the past in the most profound way he possibly can. I've had that as a theme running throughout the story with him, and here was the payoff of it. Remember way back in Chapter 10 when Shinachiku asks Sasuke why he never agreed to let Tsunade regrow his arm like Naruto did? He said that he saw his missing arm as a symbol of all he'd lost, all he'd done, of how empty and incomplete he was, and saw it as a reminder that how much he had to do before he could ever deserve to grow it back again...Well, I'd say he'd redeemed himself now don't you?"

Some of you still might not think I handled the death and rebirth thing very well and that's fine, I respect that (that's why I had Randamu point it out). Though to be fair, Kishimoto did kill off characters like Kakashi and Shizune during the Pain invasion only to bring them back by the end of the arc, so its isn't as though this is the first time something like this has happened in Naruto...That's not me making an excuse, just an ironic observation.

What I did _not_ have planned from the start, and was happy to use when I thought of it, was Sasuke's reunion with Itachi and their parents in the Pure Land. I remember that one of my reviewers wrote to me about how sad they felt it was that Naruto was getting his loved ones back and Sasuke wasn't. From the start it was never my plan to bring back Itachi or the Uchiha clan because, well, that just wasn't stuff I was interested in. But I knew that that reviewer (I apologize for not remembering who it was right now) had a very good point. So I decided that having Sasuke meet them in the Pure Land, basically Naruto's version of Heaven, would fill that role nicely. They may not be coming back to life, but by finally getting to see his family again, and this time seeing that they really are in a better place and being able to say goodbye to them in person, this can finally give Sasuke some closer now that he is old enough to accept it.

And yes, just in case it wasn't clear, Mikoto was clearly implying that Obito and Rin were...well, "becoming one" within the Pure Land...Use your imaginations.

I had only four references for this chapter. The meeting of Sasuke and Itachi in the void reminded me of a similar scene in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II," where Harry has been killed by Voldemort and he has a vision of Dumbledore greeting him in the white void that resembled King's Cross Station.

Early on, Neji observes Burandon kicking Uragi and he quotes Darth Vader from "The Empire Strikes Back": "Impressive...Most impressive."

Also, there were two "Dragon Ball Z" homages in this chapter. The actual moment when Sasuke takes the blast to save Shinachiku was directly inspired by Piccolo's self-sacrifice to save Gohan from Nappa during the Vegeta Saga. I even tried to put Sasuke in the exact same pose that Piccolo was in with his arms (err, _arm_) spread out as the blast hit him.

The second DBZ homage was at the very end when Shinachiku makes his declaration to defeat Uragi. This was very much inspired by Goku's vow to defeat Frieza on Namek. You remember, right after Vegeta dies but before their long and epic fight began.

I did, at one point, try to include another song for Sasuke's goodbye to his family, but try as I might, I just couldn't come up with one that I liked or that I felt fit the scene perfectly. So instead, I just left it as it is.

I think that's all I have for this week. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to see you all back again for the next one!

Until next time, see ya!


	52. Chapter 49--The Final Battle, Part One

What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi is back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Okay, sorry again for the long delay in this one coming out, but this one took _a lot_ of work to plot out! No, really, this one was a monster! I'll get into it more when we get to the end. So strap yourselves in, because this chapter is action packed!

So, with all that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 49: The Final Battle, Part One**

The battlefield outside the Gates of Konoha were silent. The enemy Uragi Rimonō said nothing as he stared down the boy who had so arrogantly vowed to defeat him.

"Insolent little welp! Who are you to challenge a god!"

Uragi fired a beam of crimson energy from his hand directly at the boy, but Shinachiku instead released a chakra arm from his body to take the blast, then after that one disintegrated he immediately created another one and launched it directly at his opponent. Uragi blasted that arm as well, but the boy then shot out dozens of them.

"ENOUGH!"

Uragi sent out a pulse wave that destroyed all of the arms at once. And yet, much to the old man's annoyance, the boy seemed entirely unphased by any of it. "Was that meant to have any effect at all boy?"

"No," Shinachiku stated. "Just to provide a distraction."

"LEAF WHIRLWIND!"

Rock Lee took exactly that opportunity to land a powerful kick straight into Uragi's back. It was successful in knocking him down to the ground. But that didn't last long as he got right back up again!

"FOOL!" He tried to fire a beam of the Power Gem's chakra at Lee, but wouldn't you know it, Tenten stepped in to her husband's aid right before the attack could even begin.

"TWIN RISING DRAGONS!"

Tenten unsealed two scrolls that unraveled in the air in a familiar helix formation. Leaping in between both scrolls, she released a deadly assault of weapons at the demigod before her.

Uragi blasted most of the weapons out of the air, but his overconfidence left him distracted to an identical attack coming from another angle.

"TWIN RISING DRAGONS!"

Burandon had pulled out two scrolls of his own and duplicated his mother's technique. His barrage was just as fierce as hers was, and the distraction Tenten provided allowed for more kunai and shuriken to find their mark.

'That's my boy!' Tenten said proudly within her own head.

Uragi sent out a pulse wave of red chakra that knocked the three members of the Lee clan to the ground. But Rock Lee had had enough.

"Tenten," he said to his wife, "take Burandon and go. What I do next will prove most dangerous for everyone."

The brown-haired woman with the dangling red earrings widen her eyes in realization. "Lee no!"

"Lee! You cannot mean—!"

Neji's objection was cut off when Lee reaffirmed himself. "Yes old friend, the time has come for me to use..._the Drunken Fist!_"

A feeling of terror passed over all of the former Team Guy, including their master listening from the sidelines in his wheelchair.

"Burandon," Guy instructed, "your father is about to do something very scary. Go with Neji and your mother and get away from here!"

The green-clad boy look back at the battle before him before turning back to face the others. "Forgive me mother, Guy-sensei, Neji-san...but I cannot leave now when my village needs me." Without another word, the boy turned away from them and took a few steps before stopping.

"BURANDON! What are you doing?!"

Tenten's words fell on deaf ears as he started focusing his body, causing a powerful and dangerous aura to surround his essence for the second time today.

"FIRST GATE: GATE OF OPENING! OPEN!"

It was an impressive display of power, but that did not stop the enemy's assault. Burandon would not be perturbed however. His focus continued as he increased his strength once again.

"SECOND GATE: GATE OF HEALING! OPEN!"

The boy was not finished, he kept going. His power kept increasing. On the sidelines, virtually everyone besides Guy, Tsunade, Shizune and Hanami were gobsmacked at the boy's display of power.

'That's...That's my Burandon?' Tenten questioned herself in disbelief. 'When did...? LEE! I told you not to go teaching our son jutsu like that behind my back!'

Neji was no less surprised. 'My word, for that boy to have learned to open the gates at his age...' The former Hyūga prodigy smirked, '...He truly is his father's son.'

Lee, on the other hand, stared at his son in worry more than in pride. 'Burandon, please my son. You are still young and inexperienced with that kind of power! Please do not go beyond the third gate, for your own sake...'

Focusing himself still longer, Burandon opened yet the next gate, which this time increased his body temperature as the boy's sweat quickly evaporated, forming what resembled an intense green aura emanating from himself. Hot wind picked up dramatically, the boy's skin turned red, and Burandon Lee at last felt he was ready to face his enemy.

"THIRD GATE: GATE OF LIFE! OPEN!"

Staring down the enemy with the power that was consuming him, Burandon wasted no time in executing his attack. "REVERSE LOTUS!"

He charged at the glowing man, bent on performing the powerful technique...But as soon as the boy came within range, even at his great speed, Uragi thrust a powerful punch straight into the boy's stomach, causing the poor boy to cough up blood.

"Burandon!" Hanami, Shinachiku, Sarada, and all of his friends screamed for him.

"HA!" Uragi laughed. "Foolish boy! Did you think that a weakling like you had the might needed to challenge a god?!"

Uragi stopped himself however, the boy was getting right back up...and he looked even angrier than ever! His body was still glowing red, a shade darker as a matter of fact.

Lee, Guy, Tenten, Tsunade and even Neji already knew exactly what was coming. "NO BURANDON!"

It was too late, the boy had done it. Despite all of the warnings they had always told him, he knew he had no choice. This enemy required all of the power he had to defeat, and if that meant him putting his life on the line to save his village, then that was the way it needed to be...

"FOURTH GATE: GATE OF PAIN! OPEN!"

Burandon's power was boosted yet again, the largest boost he'd ever felt in his life. Was this what Shinachiku felt like when the Power Gem was consuming him? He wondered.

But there was no time to let his mind wander. He charged at the enemy with his same attack at the ready, now with an even greater increase in speed and power. "REVERSE LOTUS!"

Burandon kicked Uragi straight up into the air and he struck his opponent at inhuman speeds. One blow after another, there seemed no end to the assault. And then it was time of the final blow, a powerful open-handed strike and kick that would send Uragi crashing down to the ground to his doom...Only that's not what happened.

Uragi decided that he'd allowed this boy to deal him enough punishment, and so instead he grabbed hold of the boy's limbs, flipped around in mid air, and forced the boy to take the blow himself instead.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

Burandon cried out in agony as not only was this blow the single most painful thing he had ever experienced in his life, but he could feel his body breaking down from the opening of the fourth gate. He knew what it was, they'd warned him. His muscle tissue was tearing on the inside.

It was over, he'd done all he could. Burandon Lee was out of the fight.

**"BURANDON!"**

Tenten's mad outcry of horror echoed throughout the entire battle field, but Lee could barely register it. For him, time had come to a standstill. He had just seen the most horrific thing he'd ever seen in his life. His son was just beaten, nearly _killed_, by the monster that was once known at Uragi Rimonō.

There were no more words to be said, there was only time for action. The Drunken Fist wasn't going to be enough, there was only one way...He began opening his own gates!

"FIRST GATE: GATE OF OPENING! OPEN!"

"Is he insane?!" Sakura yelled from the sidelines.

"SECOND GATE: GATE OF HEALING! OPEN!"

"What's Lee thinking?!" Sasuke questioned.

"THIRD GATE: GATE OF LIFE! OPEN!"

Naruto shook his head in an appropriate mix of stupor and horror. "I don't think Bushy Brows is thinking much at all right now..."

"FOURTH GATE: GATE OF PAIN! OPEN!"

"Lee..." Tenten uttered as she stared on in...

By this point the mighty Jōnin, the Green Beast of Konoha, appeared exactly like his own son had just a moment ago, equally overflowing with power. But there was a catch...You see, Lee had something else that his son currently did not, _experience_. That was why he could push his body even further than Burandon ever could.

"FIFTH GATE: GATE OF LIMIT! OPEN!"

The fifth gate opened as Lee felt his immense boost in power multiply even further. But it _still_ wasn't enough! **No!** The bastard who hurt his son had to pay! And pay he would!

"SIXTH GATE: GATE OF VIEW! OPEN!"

Yet again Lee's power amped up to truly superhuman levels! The blood flow was intense and super heated by this point, turning his skin a dark shade of red. The pain from all of these transformations went by unnoticed for Lee in the midst of his rage. This latest transformation also caused puddles of water that were nearby to float up and form a vortex around Lee.

He made his declaration. "Uragi! This is the end! My son will be avenged!"

And so, the Green Beast began his attack. "MORNING PEACOCK!"

Lee dashed at Uragi and kicked him up into the sky, which, if not for the energy of the Power Gem, might have been enough to kill the old man right there. Lee then jumped into the air in a stance and repeatedly punched the enemy in such a rapid succession that the blows were set ablaze by sheer speed and friction. This caused a fan of flames resembling a peacock's feathers around the already glowing red opponent. With one final kick, Uragi was sent crashing back down to the ground in a massive crater, covered with Lee's aura.

The green hero landed back down to the ground staring down his fallen enemy...who got right back up again with only a few minor aches.

"I'm impressed," Uragi said. "The talent of the Lee clan might not be exaggerated after all. But even with six gates unlocked, you are still no match for me."

"Maybe not alone...But what about all of us as one?"

Shinachiku stepped forward, Sarada and Hanami at his side. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Karin were behind him, as were Minato and Kushina. In fact, the entire army of shinobi army had assembled behind the boy.

Naruto placed his hand on his old friend's shoulder and, sharing a knowing look, Lee calmed down and reclosed his six gates. His body fell to one knee in understandable exhaustion.

Shinachiku turned back to everyone, _everyone_ that was behind him. "Uragi may be more powerful than any of us...But he's not more powerful than _all_ of us!"

Naruto was proud of his son, _beyond_ proud of him. But he could also see many of the eyes of those around him were growing weak and weary from fighting this seemingly invincible foe. Something more needed to be said.

"Ninja of Konoha! Of Suna! Of Kiri! Of Kumo! Of Iwa! My brothers! I can see in all your eyes a sense of fear, of hopelessness. But my son is right! No one man is as strong alone as many are together! A day may come when the courage of this world fails, when we forsake our precious people and break all bonds of love and friendship. But it is not this day! An hour of broken monuments and fallen heroes when the Age of Shinobi comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we **FIGHT!**"

Shinachiku, with confidence, finished his father's speech for him. "By all that you hold dear, on this good earth...I bid you **STAND! Ninja of the Shinobi Alliance!**"

There was a colossal, thunderous applause for both the Seventh Hokage and his son. That shared speech reinvigorated everyone!

Shinachiku, still powered up with Kurama's chakra, let out a rebel yell and ran forward towards Uragi. Sarada and Hanami followed immediately after. Inojin, Shikadai, Chōchō, Ōkami, Tsuki, Bagu and Sunako followed next. Naruto and Sakura followed after their children, along with Sasuke and Karin. Minato, Kushina, Kizashi and Mebuki followed next. Then came Sai and Ino, Shikamaru and Temari, Chōji and Karui, Kiba and Hinata, Lee and Tenten, then Neji, then Gaara and Kankurō, then Chōjūrō, Durai and Omoi, Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, then Jiraiya and Tsunade, then Shizune, Kakashi, Kurenai, Mirai and Guy (who was comically going slower than everyone else since he had to wheel himself), then Suigetsu, Jūgo and Randamu, then Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi, then Anko, Iruka and Yamato, then Hanabi, Hana, Ebisu, Kotetsu and Izumo, Chōza, Yoshino, Shibi, Tsume, Aoba, Ibiki, _everyone_ charged! In one titanic swoop they charged upon their one, singular adversary.

The final battle for Konoha had begun...

* * *

...The battle dragged on well into the morning. The Springtime of Youth from Lee and Burandon's heroic sacrifice had fueled everybody's drive to win. Naruto's leadership was the other driving factor; everyone, absolutely everyone united under the command of the Seventh Hokage!

One by one everyone was demonstrating their most powerful techniques to lay waste to this terrible enemy that stood opposing them now.

Jiraiya had enacted his summoning jutsu and called Fukasaku and Shima to him. The old married toads each leaped onto the old man's shoulders, allowing him to enter Sage Mode. Meanwhile, Tsunade had released her Strength of a Hundred Seal.

Sakura had released her own seal as well once more, while Sasuke reactivated his Rinnegan. Naruto and Minato have long been in their Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode and Sage of Six Paths Mode, respectively, although Naruto was seriously beginning to feel fatigued from his son's consistent sharing of Kurama's chakra all night.

In speaking of Shinachiku, he was emerging as the real hero of the night. Blow after blow, Rasengan after Rasengan, everything he had learned up until now was being thrown at the demigod enemy that threatened them all. Sarada was right there at his side, proudly holding up the Uchiha clan name with all she had learned herself.

All of the Leaf shinobi and their allies were unleashing their best jutsu at this singular, invincible enemy, in a display of power and unity not seen since the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

"BLOSSOM FORMATION!"

Kizashi came at the enemy with his signature taijutsu stile, katana at the ready and with sakura blossoms appearing around him. He was deflected with relative ease, but Mebuki then came in with an old tantō sword she used to carry around with her during her Genin and Chūnin days.

"CHERRY BLOSSOM SLASH!"

Mebuki's sword slashed with a flurry of blossoms around her, she was lucky enough to land a slash at Uragi's neck, but the power of the gem was quick to heal the demigod.

"Useless..." He grabbed the elder kunoichi by the throat and threw her across the battelfied at rapid gallop.

"MOM!" Sakura yelled in shock.

"GRANDMA!" Both Shinachiku and Hanami panicked.

"MEBUKI!" Kizashi cried out in terror.

The blow that was coming would most assuredly had murdered the old woman...had she not been caught before hitting the ground by a mysterious force.

"K-Kushina?"

The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero smiled at her old friend. "You looked like you could use a hand." She set her new sister-in-law down on her feet and recognized the weapon she used to carry with her when they were children. "I'm surprised you held onto that thing."

Mebuki chuckled. "Figured it'd work a lot better than a flying pan."

"Hey! Don't knock the frying pan. Cookware can be a weapon of mass destruction in the right hands."

Mebuki chuckled again. "True that."

The two friends ran back into the heat of battle as Aoba was currently lunging at Uragi.

"SCATTERING THOUSAND CROWS TECHNIQUE!"

A flock consisting of countless crows were summoned into being and proceeded to swarm and dazzle the enemy. Aoba emitted his chakra from his fingers and altered it into high frequency waves to freely manipulate the crows. The crows cawed and squawked as they continuously cloned themselves and Uragi became completely surrounded. But while the birds obscured the old man's vision and pecked away at his hide, an angry surge of crimson energy instantly evaporated the entire flock.

Ibiki slammed his hand to the ground. "SUMMONING JUTSU: IRON MAIDEN!"

A gigantic iron maiden in the shape of a _maneki neko_, the "beckoning cat," appeared from beneath the ruptured ground directly underneath Uragi's feet, split down the middle. The statue clamped around its target before wrapping itself in chains.

With a gesture, Ibiki ordered the statue to carry the enemy back beneath the earth...until the statue exploded in a crimson wave, its pieces scattering everywhere.

Chōza employed the ultimate technique of his clan. "MULTI-SIZE TECHNIQUE!"

Yoshino, Tsume, Kuromaru, Hana, the Three Haimaru Brothers, Hiashi, Hanabi and Shibi all leaped onto the elder Akimichi's now colossal arm and ran up it into the sky before leaping off of his hand to descend down from above.

Yoshino aimed a kunai straight for Uragi's eye socket with all the terrifying ferocity that Shikamaru always claimed she'd possessed. The attack was caught in between two of his fingers, but that was fine because she quickly leaped out of the way for the others to have their turn.

"SECRET TECHNIQUE: INSECT SPHERE!"

Shibi covered the enemy from head-to-toe with his insects. They surrounded him and made a globe shape before attaching themselves to the enemy and began eating away at his chakra. Death would normally be assured from such a technique...But regrettably, the energy of the Power Gem was so densely immense that it was far too much for insects of the Aburame clan. Many of them burst open in a disgusting display of guts and goo before the elder Aburame was forced to retract the survivors.

"GENTLE FIST: EIGHT TRIGRAM VACUUM WALL PALM!"

Hiashi and Hanabi both used their clan's signature fighting style to deliver an open-palmed punch so hard it caused a vaccum effect in the air pressure. The combined attack from father and daughter did force Uragi back a couple inches, but his still withstood it. And when the old man attempted to deliver the Eight Trigram technique to sever his chakra points, Uragi, merely caught his arms in the air and blasted the old man out of the way. As for Hanabi, she tried the same technique, but to equal failure.

"FANG PASSING FANG!"

Tsume and Kuromaru spun at a ferocious speed to deliver a succession of beast-like attacks. Uragi blocked them, but then Hana and her trio of dogs took a turn.

"FANG ROTATING FANG!"

Hana and the Haimaru Brothers rolled at a ferocious speed, so fast that it created a buzz-saw-like shape. Over and over again they delivered savage, animalistic attacks, but with a shout of "Enough!", they were cast aside and hit the ground with a large thud.

"HEY!" a loud, booming voice could be heard. "Remember me?"

Uragi looked up to see the still towering, gigantic form of Chōza Akimichi looming over him as he slammed his colossal fist on the enemy's body, creating another crater in the earth.

It seemed like the battle might be over...until Chōza felt his fist heat up from the intensity of the red chakra. It was so much that the elder Akimichi was forced to retract his fist in pain, thus giving Uragi the opening he needed to land a Power Gem-enhanced chakra punch straight to the giant man's stomach. The blow was so strong that it was almost enough to kill the old man and reunite him with his dearly departed friends Inoichi and Shikaku. The force of the attack knocked Chōza out of the fight and forced him back to his original size.

Isumo and Kotetsu stepped up as one. Nodding, the two old friends enacted a collaboration attack that they had utilized for decades. Kotetsu got out his Conch Shell Mace while his partner performed his jutsu.

"WATER STYLE: STARCH SYRUP CAPTURING FIELD!"

Isumo expelled a wave of high-viscosity, chakra-infused water at the enemy's feet. The technique appeared to entrap the enemy's movements, allowing Kotetsu the opening he needed to swing his mace for a critical blow. Unfortunately they failed to notice that Uragi had channeled chakra into his feet to allow him to walk upon the starch syrup instead. Thus, when Kotetsu was about to land his blow, Uragi instead grabbed him by the threat and tossed him directly into Izumo, knocking them both to the ground far, far away.

"Pathetic," Uragi scoffed. "Is all of this the best—?"

"FIRE STYLE: FIRE DRAGON BULLET!"

Ebisu exhaled a blast of intense flaming breath from his mouth that blasted straight at Uragi...to comically little effect. The old man then nonchalantly blasted the perverted shinobi away with a single blast of crimson chakra.

"Is all of _this_ the best this village has to offer me?!"

"No! But maybe one of _our_ villages can offer you a challenge?!"

The old man snapped his head around to see four of the five kages standing there with their loyal escorts at their side. The feminine quality to the voice he'd overheard alerted him that it was Kurotsuchi who'd shot her mouth off.

Uragi merely stood his ground as his former servants prepared their attack.

"EARTH STYLE: GOLEM TECHNIQUE!"

Akatsuchi expelled from his mouth a large, humanoid creature, one made up of solid rock! The golem was twice the size of its own creator and upon receiving the signal, the thing stomped over to his foe and was about to pummel him with his ferocious stone fist.

"Golem!" Akatsuchi shouted, "Its time to clobber this—!"

_BOOM!_

One blast of the Power Gem's chakra. That was all it took to blow the rock golem to smithereens, its fragments flying all over the place as particles of dust hung in the air.

As Akatsuchi appeared deflated, Omoi broke the silence, "Well...that was anticlimactic."

Karui agreed, "Yeah, how about you and I show them how its done?"

Receiving a confirmatory nod from their Raikage, the two former teammates leaped into the battle together with their swords drawn.

"CLOUD STYLE: FRONT BEHEADING!"

"CLOUD STYLE: CRESCENT MOON BEHEADING!"

Both of them swung their weapons as one, Karui in a single quick and powerful motion from their opponent's front, and Omoi in a single, large, crescent moon-shaped arc from his behind. To their shock, Uragi caught both swords at the same time and, using the power of the gem, disintegrated each the their weapons with ease before blasting them both with near critical blows.

Uragi had no time to gloat the ease of yet another victory before Kurotsuchi shouted "EARTH STYLE: EARTH FLOW SPHERES!" She condensed the mud and stone around the area and shaped it into an enormous wave of spikes that shot out from the ground. The spikes were so sharp that contact with one could skewer straight through any opponent. But Uragi was able to dodge most of them and those he could not he blasted apart with the unlimited power of the gem.

"MUTILATION!"

Chōjūrō got out his mighty sword Hiramekarei and, while Uragi was busy dodging and blasting away of Kurotsuchi's spheres of raw earth, he used his blade to create a large amount of blue chakra needles that launched out of the sword and embedded themselves directly into Uragi. Chōjūrō was no fool, he knew that the Power Gem was the source of the enemy's godlike power and so the needles would not disrupt his chakra as they normally would. But what it did guarantee was for the old man to become immobilized long enough for his fellow kages to get in their own vengeance against the traitor as well.

"Kurotsuchi! NOW!"

At Chōjūrō's signal, the Tsuchikage performed her combination jutsu. "LAVA STYLE: ASH STONE SEAL TECHNIQUE!" She shot thick ash from her mouth that wrapped around her target. "WATER STYLE: WATER TRUMPET!" She then launched a large jet of water from her mouth through her hand, making the technique resemble a trumpet. Together the two attacks solidified the ground, entrapping the enemy in a stone prison.

"Darui! NOW!"

The Raikage then readied his next attack, and he was full prepared to make it count. Gaara had used his sand to create a midair platform for him to run across as he dashed towards his enemy, finally leaping off the sand and staring down the Taka leader.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: BLACK PANTHER!"

Darui generated black lightning from his body and willed it into the form of a large, ferocious panther. With a static roar, the beast lunged at Uragi where it electrocuted him hideously. Kurotsuchi used her Water Trumpet once again to splash the enemy while the panther was shocking him, doubling the damage.

"It is done," Darui stated bluntly as the light from the gem died out and it appeared that nothing was left but a scorched, smoking carcass...

...And then the light returned again and Uragi blasted his way out of his stone imprisonment with a mere surge of power.

'I-Impossible...' Darui could not believe is eyes...But he was too furious to linger as he then unleashed one of his most devastating jutsu upon his enemy. A halo of bright energy spread across the Raikage's hand, which then encircled his hand and then, the technique was unleashed.

"STORM RELEASE: LASER CIRCUS!"

An onslaught of energy beams shot out of his hand and straight out towards his opponent...But to Uragi's horror, the old man used the power of the gem to directly counter all of them, and then blast all three of the kages that had struck him—Chōjūrō, Kurotsuchi, and Darui—far away from him like a bunch of lousy pests.

Gaara stared on, taking in what had just happened to his fellow kage's at the hands of the monster they were facing. 'This is futile. Uragi's power is too great for us to continue taking one-on-one...So be it.'

Rather than continue fighting, Gaara instead used his sand to take to the air to rejoin his family and their friends.

Uragi, seeing the Kazekage himself seemingly fleeing for his life, laughed maniacally.

Gaara flew over the battlefield to where Naruto and the others were. Calling out to them, he landed before them and was quickly greeted by both his daughter and his elder siblings.

"Naruto!" the Kazekage shouted.

The Orange Hokage turned his head to speak to his old friend. "Gaara? What is it?"

"This is a loosing battle. The other kages and several of our forces are being defeated easily. It is as though none of our jutsu are having any effect at all."

"Did he kill them?" Sakura questioned.

"I don't think so."

"Why not?" Kiba asked bluntly. "If he's so damn powerful then why doesn't he just finish everyone off and be done with it?"

Sasuke knew the answer. "Because of me."

"What are you talking about?"

"We have the Soul Gem now, Shinachiku already used it to bring me back from the Pure Land. If he kills any of us then he knows we can just use it to being them right back again."

Shikamaru shook his head, "That shouldn't matter. We've all seen what he can do with all the power he's got. He could easily wipe out this entire village and everyone in it in a single shot if he wanted, so there'd be no one left to use the Soul Gem. So why hasn't he just done that?"

Shinachiku answered for them. "Its because he's toying with us. He _wants_ us all to see how invincible he is first. He _wants_ to beat us down and humble us all with his new sense of godhood before he wipes us all out."

"How do you know that?" Sarada asked her boyfriend.

He turned to her with a knowing frown. "Because if I still had that power, that's what _I_ would do."

There was a long silence as everybody took in the weight of the situation...Of course, leave it to Randamu to completely spoil the moment. "Well, this world's fucked! Who's up for some sake and hitting the strip club!" The only reaction he got from the others were irritated glares from everybody, particularly from the women. "What?"

"He's got a point!" Sarada protested. "He's too powerful!"

"I have to admit this is a real drag," Shikadai complained.

Inojin surmised, "So long as Uragi still possesses the Power Gem, I fear we may never win this battle."

That's when it happened. That's when the most obvious light bulb ever finally went off in the boy's head. "That's it."

"_What's_ it?" Chōchō questioned.

"We steal the gem. If we take away his power, he'll be as mortal as the rest of us."

"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Ōkami complained.

"We keep fighting, we distract him until one of us gets in close."

"Do you really think we can?" asked Tsuki.

Shinachiku paused in thought before answering. "We have to. Its our only hope of ending this."

Bagu looked over at the battle still being fought. "Well, the adults have his attention now. I'd say that's plenty distraction enough."

The others looked to the battlefield to see that Anko was taking her turn against the godlike enemy, but fortunately there was more to her plan than it seemed..

"MANY HIDDEN SHADOW SNAKE HANDS!"

A wave of multiple serpents shot out of the Jōnin's sleeve, more than usual for this technique, and grabbed hold of Uragi, the crimson chakra surrounding his body singeing the snakes heads and mouths as they sank their fangs into their target and flung him into the air. Anko swung her body around and guided her snakes to fling him in the direction of one of her allies.

"WOOD STYLE: FOUR-PILLAR PRISON TECHNIQUE!"

Yamato converted his chakra into the timber beneath the ground of the battlefield allowing it to grow rapidly, willing it into the formation of a wooden prison cell. The top of the cell was open for him the fling Uragi inside, and as soon as the enemy was where he wanted him, the door slammed shut.

"NOW! SEALED BOMB SQUARE RELEASE!"

Iruka rapidly, with his full ninja speed available to him at his age, placed an array of exploding tags all over the wooden cell. With a quick hand seal, the old teacher detonated the tags, causing a massive explosion that could be seen from the village and the city.

Many of the shinobi forces needed to shield their eyes from the force of the explosion, and some among the crowd asked aloud, "Did it work?"

...The answer was no. Walking slowly out of the fiery cinders of his former cage, Uragi fired three more blasts of crimson chakra at Anko, Yamato and Iruka, bringing all three of them to their knees.

"IRUKA-SENSEI" Naruto, Shinachiku and Sarada all shouted as one.

"YAMATO-SENSEI!" Shikadai and Inojin shouted.

"ANKO-SENSEI!" Chōchō shouted.

The reunited Konohamaru Corps, the former Team Ebisu, reunited on the field of battle before the godlike enemy they were facing now. None of them ever got to be there for the Fourth Great Shinobi War, but now they had their chance to stand as one and defend their home.

"Its funny, the three of us back together like this," Moegi noted.

"Its a while, glad to see you Konohamaru," Udon smiled. "I guess this time's gonna take more than a Sexy Jutsu to take this guy down right?"

"Looks like," Konohamaru replied with a smirk.

"Say Konohamaru," Moegi said, "how about after this is over you finally introduce us to that cute little boy you call your apprentice?"

"Assuming we all live through this," Udon argued pessimistically while wiping his nose. "Statistically the possibility of the village successfully defeating Uragi while in this form is roughly 3,720 to 1—"

"Never tell me the odds!" Konohamaru interrupted. "I'll introduce you guys after our job is done here. Right now...Konohamaru Corps! Attack!"

The three former teammates dashed over to their shared opponent, Konohamaru's famous blue scarf flapping in the breeze. Leaping into the air together, but coming in a different angle, Moegi got the first blow.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!"

Focusing her chakra into her fist, she let loose with a massive critical strike that slammed the enemy into an enormous crater left in the earth. Clearly, those classes she took under Lady Sakura had paid off.

Udon came in next. He focused his chakra into his dominant hand and felt a wave of electric current flow around it,, creating that all-too familiar chirping sound. He had worked long and hard to learn the signature technique of his childhood idol, Sasuke Uchiha, and while he knew he could never come anywhere close to Sasuke's level, if this was enough to at last make the traitor Uragi pay for his crimes, then that was what mattered.

"ROAR! CHIDORI!"

The electric jutsu shocked the old man nice and hard, almost scorching him. But Udon rapidly leaped out of the way for the true attack to make leave its mark.

Konohamaru formed his most signature jutsu in one hand, one that his idol had taught to him long, long ago and which had served him ever since. Like Naruto, he'd studied and trained long and hard to take it as far as he could, and along with Naruto they'd each passed that knowledge down to Shinachiku. Now, this single, growing orb of chakra might be the key to victory this day.

"BIG BALL RASENGAN!"

Konohamaru slammed the enlarged jutsu straight into the enemy's chest, triggering yet another huge explosion.

"YEAH!" Shinachiku cheered from the sidelines with Sarada joining in. "Way to go sensei!"

Naruto stared on in distress, he could clearly sense the truth. "No...its not enough."

The dust cleared...Uragi was _still_ standing, the aura of crimson chakra more intense than ever! Konohamaru huffed and puffed as he remained slack jawed in horror.

"Be gone." That was all the old man said before he blasted all three of them to the far end of the battlefield, all the way to Konoha Gate. The impact was so severe that it shattered several of their arms and legs. The Konohamaru Corps were unable to move.

"SENSEI!"

Shinachiku and Sarada saw the entire thing. The kids were angry, really angry, especially a certain blonde-haired boy.

**"Kit."**

Shinachiku heard a familiar voice inside himself again. 'Kurama? What is it?'

**"Listen kit, there's no way we're going to be able to beat him like this."**

'What else can we possibly do? We need to extract the Power Gem from him to bring and end to all of this!'

**"And absolutely none of your forces have managed to lay even a dent on him...But there may be another way."**

'...What do you mean?'

**"Think about it kit, if external attacks are doing nothing to him, then maybe there is some other place where he is more vulnerable."**

Somehow, someway, the boy was able to piece together exactly what the fox was suggesting. 'But...But how? How am I supposed to fight inside of his—?"

**"Not inside of his kit...Inside of **_**yours**_**."**

'What?! How?!'

**"The Uchiha girl, your parents...Take from them what you need." **

"Shina?"

Sarada's concerned voice shook the blonde out of his mental conversation and back to reality.

"DAD! AUNT INO!"

The boy's furious outburst caught the Yamanaka woman and his own father off guard, but they both rushed over to his side when he called them.

"What is it Shina?" Ino questioned.

"I need you to commune a message for me. Please tell them exactly what I say."

He then turned back to his father and his girlfriend. "Dad, Sarada...there's something each of you have that I need..."

...

...

...

"ENOUGH!"

Uragi Rimonō's voice echoed across the landscape of the Konoha battlefield. In fact, it echoed across the entire city! It was like the voice of a god itself, an angry god, one that was hell bent on exacting its rage on the people that were its own subjects.

"Hear me well Uzumaki! Your forces have done well to defend your flawed, disgraced excuse for a world! But now I've grown bored of this game! Let all the shinobi and children of this world say their prayers because my reinvention of this world begins **NOW!**"

Karin felt her blood run cold. "Sasuke...I can feel it...He's powering up to maximum. He's going to blow up this entire village! EVERYTHING! Men, women, children, he doesn't care anymore!"

Sasuke stared on with a forlorn expression. "So, that's how it is then? Let just hope the kid's crazy plan works."

The Village Hidden in the Leaves was being engulfed in a vast red light. The energy of the Power Gem was charging up, forming an intense aura that pulsed with pure destructive chakra energy.

The end had come...

...

...

...

"FLYING SWALLOW!"

Mirai was able to use of her chakra blades with chakra flowing through one end to cut a past the intense aura. It left a deep gash, but one that was rapidly healing. Still, the unexpected blow was enough to force the demigod to stumble backward, near a lone tree that had outlasted all the carnage of the battle.

Mirai stumbled out of the way to allow her mother her own turn to attack.

"DEMONIC ILLUSION: TREE BINDING DEATH!"

Kurenai disappeared from sight in a mist before Uragi's very eyes. Then, he felt a his mobility robbed from him as he beheld the mirage of fast-growing trees coiling around him. Once he was immobile, Kurenai emerged from the trunk of the tree before stabbing him through the chest with a kunai. The blade was quick to evaporate from the energy of the gem, and that genjutsu she knew would likely not last very long against an opponent like him. But it was enough to do momentary damage while Guy and Kakashi took their own turns.

Kakashi had created a clone to wheel Guy into the battle with his mighty battle cry fully ablaze. The former Green Beast of Konoha had his solid metal nunchakus at the ready. When they close enough, Guy flung his nunchakus at Uragi's head with all the strength he could muster. They had virtually no effect of course, other than to give the old man a headache and leave him momentarily busy...

...Fortunately, that was _exactly_ what Kakashi was counting on.

"LIGHTNING CUTTER!"

Before Uragi could get over his dizziness, the Sixth Hokage leaped in and thrust his electric jutsu straight into Uragi's left lung, just barely dodging the enemy's heart. Why? Because that was where the Power Gem was residing inside Uragi's chest and so the Son of the White Fang reached his hand out to reach for it.

A crimson-colored arm stopped Kakashi's, even as the self-proclaimed demigod was impaled. "So falls the clan of Hatake."

Uragi sent out a blast of energy at Kakashi with his other hand. It was enough power to blast a hole through his shoulder!

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shinachiku and Sarada all yelled in shock.

The force of Uragi's blast was also enough to knock the great warrior back into his old rival, knocking Guy out of his wheelchair and to the ground, unable to move his legs.

Shizune leaped in next, pulling aside her sleeve and ejecting her poison-tipped senbon at Uragi's skin. Some of them made contact, but she could already tell that the poison was having far less effect in this instance than it would on a normal opponent.

"Hahahahahaha!" Urgi laughed. "FOOLS! Even with all of you together you can accomplish nothing! What possible hope have any of you left to stop m—AAAGGHH!"

Uragi's boisterous speech was cut off when he felt glowing golden chakra chains strangling him by the neck as others wrapped themselves around his hands and bound his feet, forcing him down to a kneeling position.

"Kushina!" Uragi's cursed, knowing that only his former minion could possibly be behind this.

_CLANG!_

A single kunai embedded itself into the ground...a familiar kunai with three prongs protruding from it.

In a single, instantaneous flicker, Minato appeared directly in the face of the old man. He wasted no time in landing his devastating blow.

"FLYING THUNDER GOD TECHNIQUE: RASENGAN!"

The Fourth Hokage slammed his signature technique into his former master. The resulting explosion blasted him down into another crater left within the earth, one which he could not escape from thanks to Kushina's imprisonment. Any other opponent short of perhaps Madara or Kaguya themselves might have been finished after a blow like that...But at the moment, Uragi was anything but an ordinary opponent.

Recovering from the damage, he was able to then grab hold of the chains and channel the gem's power straight through them to the red-haired maiden herself. The blast was of enough intensity to severely stun her, which in turn broke her concentration and allowed her binds to break apart. He also fired a blast at Minato, one that came so quickly and without the slightest provocation that even the Yellow Flash was caught off guard.

Jiraiya, with the old married toads still on his shoulders, made some quick hand signs and cast his own attack. "SAGE ART: GOEMON!"

On Shima's command, the Toad Sage created a large volume of oil that he spat at Uragi's feet, then Fukasaku performed a Wind Release technique to propel the oil while Shima performed a large Fire Release technique to ignite it. Within an instant, the oil on the ground under Uragi's feet was burning at temperatures upwards of 1,000 degrees.

Normally this would be more than enough to trust to incinerate any opponent, but in this case they could afford to leave nothing to chance...That is why Tsunade released her Strength of a Hundred Seal and, with a rebel yell, pounded the earth with enough force to literally make the entire village and perhaps even much of the entire Land of Fire quake!

The fissure opened up beneath Uragi's feet and the demigod fell in...Or at least he would have, had he not used to powers of the gem to shield himself from the truly monstrous attack.

"Old fools." He blasted both of then, knocking them both to the ground and knocking the two toad's off of Jiraiya's shoulder.

Over from where they were standing, Naruto and Sakura were holding hands, each of them in pain from having to watch how simply Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya and Tsunade, four of the people that meant the most to them, were so easily defeated.

"Naruto...?"

The Orange Hokage looked to his wife. "I know."

Sasuke took his place next to his former teammates. "You realize that this has got to be the single craziest plan anybody has ever come up with, right dobe?"

"I have faith in my son Sasuke. You should too."

"I do have faith in the boy, but how do we even know that this will work? Not to mention the insane risk that it puts on _you!_"

"Sasuke!" Sakura snapped. "My husband is well aware of the risks, thank you very much."

The newly-resurrected Uchiha raised an eyebrow and smirked at the pinkette's passionate defense of the blonde. Oh my, how times have changed.

"Okay Naruto," the Uchiha said, "if you're sure."

Naruto smiled in fatherly pride. "I am."

Standing side-by-side, Shinachiku and Sarada looked out upon the battlefield before sharing a knowing glance.

In the next instant, both of them bit their thumbs and slammed their hands down on the ground. "SUMMONING JUTSU!"

In twin puffs of smoke, two creatures appeared alongside them: a toad and a snake, each of which was the size of their summoner.

"Shinachiku Uzumaki," the toad uttered, "so pleased to see you again."

"Lady Sarada," the snake hissed, "how may I be of service?"

"Gamasenshi," Shinachiku said, "our village is is in the midst of a fight for its very survival. I need you to lend your sword to help defend it."

"I must ask the same of you Hebihime," Sarada added.

Shinachiku had to admit that was feeling just a little bit creeped out standing next to the daughter of the late Lord Manda. It wasn't any kind of personal prejudice, its just that he did use to be an ophidiophobe back when he was a child.

The two summons looked out to the enemy that they were facing. They each could sense the power resonating from the human consumed in red chakra, and quite honestly it was enough to intimidate to both of them. Even so, they were a proud warrior of Mount Myōboku and the heiress of Ryūchi Cave, they were not about to run away from the field of battle now.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

The four of them turned their heads in shock as they saw a third puff of smoke go up, revealing a slug the size of the little girl who'd just summoned it.

_"Hanami?!"_

The pink-haired girl smiled cutely at her big brother's utterly shocked expression. "Mommy let me sign a contract when you and daddy weren't looking."

Both the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl stared with open jaws and eyes as wide as dinner plates, but they both needed to shake themselves out of it in order to stay focused on the task at hand.

"Okay, we just need you three to help keep Uragi busy while I enact my plan to end this battle once and for all. Gamasenshi! GO!"

"Hebihime! GO!"

"Suragutome! GO!"

The three summons charged at their opponent. Gamasenshi drew his tantō as he leaped high into the air and came down. Before finishing his descent, Hebihime coiled its body around the enemy while trying to dig her fangs into Uragi. Regrettably, the intense aura from the Power Gem was enough to sting even the Snake Princess's fangs.

Gamasenshi brought his sword down for a critical slash...the old man caught the blade in his hand and incinerated it with his touch.

"WHAT?!" the toad warrior cried out in shock.

Suragutome, the slug maiden, split itself into hundreds of smaller clones of itself that then swarmed over the enemy before reforming with the enemy within itself so that the enemy might suffocate from lack of air. The response to this was for Uragi to let loose with the power of the gem and cause the slug to explode into smaller clones that reformed into a whole.

"It this it?!" Uragi yelled to the children. "Is _this_ the best that you brats can offer me?! HA! Clearly the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans are in for dark days indeed if _these_ three are the future of their families."

Shinachiku, Sarada and Hanami stared down the demigod coldly as their respective summons recuperated and recoiled from their wounds.

"Shina," Sarada spoke up, "we don't have much more time. If this plan of yours in going to work, then it must be now."

"I agree—"

"Wait oniichan!" Hanami shouted. "Look!"

Gaara came into the field of battle floating on a platform of sand with his arms crossed. "You dare to lecture us about family? Let us **all** prove to you what family is capable of!"

The Kazekage then focused his sand into two massive hands that further split into four hands, each of which grabbed the traitorous villain by his arms and legs.

Sunako used her own sand to float to her father's side and, along with him, she manipulated her sand into the form of a long, three-pronged weapons of stone solid density and tipped with razor sharp rock.

"SAND SPEAR!"

Both father and daughter launched their weapons at the enemy, both weapons gorging him through the chest, actually causing him to cough up blood...until the sand disintegrated from the power of the gem.

No matter, because now Kankurō took his turn to battle. Unsealing his scrolls, he rapidly released all four of his puppets—Kuroari, Karasu, Sanshōuo and Sasori—to release the full fury of their attack range.

Kuroari slashed with the serrated blades in each of its arm segments and needles launched from its arms. Karasu shot out smoke bombs from its arms to blind Uragi while it slashed with the scythe blade hidden in its torso, stabbed with the knives in its wrists, and speared with the large poison blade in its mouth. Sanshōuo opened its mouth to spout an intense flame thrower at the enemy, just before Sasori spun his propeller blades that have been dipped with poison.

The poison attacks were barely having any effect on the old man, who was quickly healing from the intense barrage of relentless blade slashes. He promptly fired beams at all four of Kankurō's puppets, blasting them all into pieces.

Shikadai stepped in after his uncle was robbed of his weapons, staring down the old man.

"And what do you expect to do boy?"

"I'm the guy whose going to make sure you don't go anywhere for the next few seconds asshole!" The boy got into a proper hand sign. "WIND STYLE: SHADOW POSSESSION EXPANSION JUTSU!"

The combination of his mother's wind chakra and his fathers clan's techniques allowed for the Shikadai to dramatically expand the attack range, ensuring that Uragi's entire body was unable to move. He knew full well that he would not be able to hold this man for too long, so it was pivotal that as many of his friends and their parents landed a critical blow as possible.

Temari leaped in with her gigantic war fan at the ready. "WIND STYLE: WIND CUTTER!"

The gusts of wind came one after another with the force of a barrage of razor sharp scythes. Gashes appeared on every crevice of Uragi's body and blood spurted everywhere, before the wounds healed.

Shikamaru followed his wife. He was armed with his late master's chakra blades, which he'd already infused with his own chakra. "SHADOW IMITATION SHURIKEN TECHNIQUE!"

Shikadai let go of his jutsu less than a second before his father launched his attack. Shikamaru used his attack to just barely miss Uragi's body, piercing his shadow instead, seemingly paralyzing him in place.

'This may not last as long as usual...' Shikamaru looked to his son. 'We need to be ready.' There were no words shared between them, but both father and son understood the message nevertheless.

Uragi was struggling to shake free of his paralysis, but that gave Chōji and Chōchō the opening they both needed to go in for their strike, both of them eager to get payback for what this man had done to their wife and mother.

By popping one of her clan's Three Colored Pills to ensure her chakra reserves could handle the strain, Chōchō was ready to take on a challenge of, quite literally, gigantic undertaking. "SUPER MULTI-SIZE TECHNIQUE!"

Chōchō used the super enhanced version of her clan's signature jutsu to expand her body to a size truly beyond belief. By the time she was done she was the same size that Uragi himself had been when he was in his kaiju form. Once she had finally stopped growing, she slammed her colossal fist and then stomped her foot on Uragi.

The titanic thud silenced everything as nothing happened for several moments...And then Chōchō felt her foot getting hot. She was forced to remove her foot because Uragi has intensified the flow of his power once again, burning her. He then fired a powerful blast at the girl that knocked her out, forcing her back to her normal size as she passed out.

"YOU BASTARD!" Chōji was utterly furious! _Nobody_ did that to his wife or his little girl!

No more pretense was needed. The Akimichi clan head focused on converting his calories into chakra. That chakra took a physical form all too familiar to all of his friends, that of a pair of large blue butterfly wings, which then compressed into smaller wings.

Now in this 'Butterfly Chōji Mode' as he called it, Chōji was ready to dish out his ultimate attack. "BUTTERFLY BULLET BOMBING!"

Chōji burned away all of his levels of fat to convert into chakra, a very dangerous process as part of a life-threatening technique if used in conjunction with his clan's colored pills, rather that with the Calorie Control technique as Chōji was doing now. The Akimichi concentrated his unique chakra into his fist, then put all of his weight and all of his fury into the punch.

Chōji let out a yell of fury as he lay the most powerful punch he could deliver right to Uragi's jaw. It was only through the shielding that the Power Gem's aura provided him that he was able to survive such a blow that actually did succeeded in knocking him down!

Chōji collapsed; his body returned to normal, now noticeably thinner after all of the calories he had burned off. Even though using the Calorie Control technique bypassed the life threatening danger of the technique, the sheer exhaustion and fatigue still required he get immediate medical attention, which Tsunade was quick to rush over and provide.

The three kids watched what had just happened with wonder. Hanami was the one to break the silence. "Is it over oniichan?"

Shinachiku shook his head in disappointment. "I don't think so."

The boy was right. The seemingly invincible Uragi got back up _again_! He tried toe charge up his power one more time before he felt a familiar tugging of his body again. Shikadai had come back and recaptured him in his Shadow Possession Justu all over again.

"Inojin! Hurry!"

Inojoin and his family leaped in as a singular unit. Sai took the first strike, quickly getting out his sketchbook and scribbling out a ferocious dragon creature. "SUPER BEAST INTIMIDATION DRAWING!"

The dragon leaped off the page and roared to life. It was seconds away for biting Uragi's head off...when the old man's power and struggling finally proved too much for Shikadai to handle and he broke free. Quickly, he released a blast of crimson power at Sai's creation, rendering it nothing more than a gigantic glob of ink.

"MIND BODY SWITCH TECHNIQUE!"

Ino did not allow any time for Uragi to gloat about his victory over her husband's jutsu, instead, she quickly utilized her clan's signature technique. Focusing her chakra, she attempted to transfer her mind into the body of her opponent's own...There was only one problem: Uragi was alert enough to catch her out of the corner of his eye, and thus blasted her to a far end of the battlefield before she could be allowed in.

"SUPER BEAST MENTAL PROJECTION JUTSU!"

Inojin quickly got out his own sketchbook and doodled a three-headed hydra. Bringing the beast to life, he was about to project his creation straight into the enemy's mind...But then Uragi fired two crimson blasts from either of his hands, one which knocked out Inojin, the other which turned his creation into a bloated ink mass like his father's.

Uragi, in a brief moment of rest, took the time to let out a short sigh of relief, almost as if that Yamanaka boy and his father came close to exploiting some sort of weakness...

He did not have much more time think about it as both Shino Aburame and his son leaped before him as one and cast their own jutsu together.

"PARASITIC GIANT INSECT—BUG BITE!"

"SECRET TECHNIQUE: BULLET STING BARRAGE!"

That momentary pause Uragi took gave Bagu an opening to shoot a swarm of wasps directly at him. The intensity of their sting in turn gave Shino time to fling a number of kidaichū onto his glowing red skin. These insects proceeded to burrow into his body in order to gruesomely devour his flesh as chakra.

"AAAHHH!" Uragi cried out from internal pain. He got a hold of himself again and focused the power of the gem inwards, expelling the insects from inside of his body and incinerating them.

Neji leaped in next, staring down the man that had once been his evil master with rage. "BYAKUGAN!"

The once heralded genius of the Hyūga invoked a secret taijujtsu that was thought to be known only to the main branch of the clan. He released every tenketsu from his body, then he span himself around rapidly.

Growling in annoyance at yet another of Taka's former minions, Uragi fired a blast directly at the Leaf ninja...

"EIGHT TRIGRAM REVOLVING HEAVEN!"

Neji was spinning himself so rapidly that that not only was he able to parry the attack, but somehow he was actually able to reflect the blast right back at Uragi, causing him to groan in momentary pain and fall to his knees.

Now Ōkami and Tsuki had the opening they needed. Even though the male twin was still wounded from his act of self-sacrifice, Sakura's healing of him was good enough that he was insistent that he could do this. And so, with Akamoro and Akamiri at their side, the twins proceeded to tag team on their enemy.

"BYAKUGAN!" they shouted together. "EIGHT TRIGRAMS, SIXTY-FOUR PALMS! TWIN FANG PASSING FANG!"

The Inuzuka-Hyūga twins once again teamed up with their ninken and both sets of partners spun in their coordinated, synchronized dance at speeds akin to a pack of wild animals. The attacks became more precise and focused on close proximity, the blows aimed at Uragi's chakra points and pressure points, blows that were admittedly harder to land due to the protection of the gem's aura.

But this is where the twin's usual attack differed. Rather than land a killing blow themselves, they suddenly surprised their opponent by together flinging him into the direction of their father and a shadow clone he'd made of himself.

"HUMAN BEAST MIXTURE TRANSFORMATION—THREE HEADED WOLF!"

Kiba, Akamaru and the shadow clone transformed together into a gigantic, white-furred, ferocious three-headed wolf with sharp claws and canine teeth.

"TAIL CHASING FANG FANG ROTATING FANG!"

The three-headed beast curled itself into a ball and rolled at a ferocious speed towards Uragi, who was already being flung through the air directly at him. The rotation was ultra violent, and the combined beast form landed a normally lethal blow to the demigod. The impact launched Uragi into the air and when gravity brought him back down, the beast caught him in one of its three mouths, gnawing on the old man before flinging its head to the side, sending him flying once again.

This time, the old man was flung in the direction of Hinata, who had steeled her own expression as she too activated her clan's signature ability. "BYAKUGAN!"

Hinata finished her family's combination attack with a technique she'd mastered after learning of another jutsu her first love, Naruto, had learned to perform long ago. She changed the shape of her chakra released from both of her hands into two large shrouds shaped like a pair of guardian lions.

"EIGHT TRIGRAM SIXTY FOUR PALM! GENTLE STEP TWIN LION FIST!"

Hinata let loose with an utter barrage of strikes the moment the old man had come into her vicinity. For every strike the lion heads landed all over his body, they drained his chakra network of more and more chakra. She was no fool, she knew that the gem was giving him a seemingly limitless supply, but the more she could drain before he regenerated, the easier it would, hopefully, be for Shinachiku to carry out the plan that he'd told Ino to commune to all of them.

Finally, she'd landed the last blow straight into Uragi's chest, before tossing the old man over her shoulder and face first into a puddle of water that was in the middle of the battlefield. As Uragi regained his bearings and tried to regather his power again, he noticed that the puddle of water he'd landed in was starting to rise up and take form. He'd recognized the water man's face, it was one of Uchiha's accomplices, the swordsman from the mist! He was smirking down upon him, clearly about to enjoy this.

"WATER STYLE: TATE EBOSHI!"

Suigetsu morphed his current aquatic form into that of a giant wave that resembled a demon-like fish! The fish swallowed Uragi whole in its gaping jaw, taking him into its liquid form with the intent to suffocate him...at least at first.

"SASUKE! NOW!"

"ROAR! CHIDORI!"

Sasuke leaped into the fray to stab his signature electric jutsu into his teammates liquid form. The result was a massive, deadly boost in electric power for the victim inside. Of course, this was an immeasurably painful experience, potentially life-ending in fact, for Suigetsu also, but if it could maybe help put an end to Uragi's evil, and get him some payback for how the old man had brainwashed him earlier, then it would be worth it.

Uragi would have none of it however. Finally finding his focus again, he charged up the Power Gem again and released a pulse wave of power that splattered water all over the battlefield. Suigetsu was able to reform himself and return to human form, but with scorches and burns all over and, for the moment, he was unable to move any more.

Uragi got back to his feet but was feeling woozy. He had taken so much damage from so many opponents in such a rapid succession that, even with the Power Gem fueling him, he was finally starting to become fatigued. Even worse, he now saw Jūgo standing before him. He was not in his usual form, but rather, he was transformed! Yes, he was already in the second state of his Sage Transformation!

Uchiha's lumbering teammate started laughing like a psychopath. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! You've done it now old man! You've made me angry! You're not going to like me when I'm angry!"

In his current form, Jūgo grew more of his jet booster-like appendages, which he extended and, in madness, he started gathering natural energy.

"MULTIPLE LOTUS NONSELF CONNECTED CANNONS!"

Jūgo released the natural energy he'd absorbed in a powerful chakra blast aimed straight at Uragi. The old man, exhausted though he was, unleashed the full power of the Power Gem to counter the blast. There was an intense beam struggle that further scorched the earth around them, but Uragi was able to win out and blast Jūgo away, knocking him out.

"Are all of you finished yet?!" Uragi yelled out impatiently. "It there anyone else who dares to challenge me?!"

"How about _me_ douche bag?!"

The old man turned too see the absolute last person that he ever expected to see try to challenge him...Randamu!

"_YOU?!_ HAHAHAHA! What hope does a clown like _you_ have of defeating a god like me?!"

"Let me tell you something bub! I might be weird and goofy and some people might confuse me for being insane. But there's one important thing about me that neither you nor anybody else seems to understand."

"And what is that?"

"That I'm somebody's character in a piece of fanfiction that can break the Fourth Wall and carries a magic sachel! In other words...I can do whatever the **FUCK** I want, no matter if it makes any sense!"

To make his point, Randamu reached into said magic sachel and pulled out of nowhere his most impressive (and bizarre) weapon of all...an 85 pound handheld GE M134 Minigun with 7.65x51mm caliber bullets and a rate of fire at 2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute!

"EAT LEAD BITCH!"

Randamu fired the minigun at full gallop! The bullets shot out at an incredibly rapid pace, but Randamu used his power to incinerate all of the rounds for as long as they were firing. By the time the weapon was finally out of artillery, Uragi had fired a blast at it to destroy the bizarre weapon.

"Fool! Did you really think that toy was going to do anything to me?!"

"Nah! I was just killing time until my green friend with the mop top was done powering back up."

Uragi turned his head around and was alarmed to see Rock Lee, still as furious as he was before. By the looks of it, he had been spending this whole time reopening his gates all over again. He was already glowing red, but that aura was changing color quickly!

'Damn!' the old man cursed to himself. 'He must have been opening his gates this entire time and I was too busy with these fools to even notice!'

Lee let out a roar as he was consumed with a glowing green sweat from every inch of his body that was immediately evaporating from his own heat energy to create a intense green aura.

'Burandon, my son...this is for you...' "SEVENTH GATE: GATE OF WONDER! OPEN!"

Lee placed a palm facing forward in front of his face with one hand and then tapped it with his other hand, which he'd formed into a fist, creating an intense amount of pressure. He then formed a unique hand seal resembling a primal beast of the jungle.

"DAYTIME TIGER!"

Lee launched a colossal blast of air pressure shaped like a roaring tiger straight at the old man. The air pressure condensed as it moved and focused into a single spot. When the tiger finally made contact with the enemy, it exploded on command, releasing all of the built-up air pressure in that instant!

The explosion was enormous! It could be seen from the city that overlooked the village and the quake of the earth could be felt throughout most off the Land of Fire!

Uragi threw a barrier of red chakra over himself to protect against the intensity of attack until it finally passed.

By the time it was over, Lee was huffing and puffing in utter exhaustion, his joints aching worse than he'd ever felt before. Opening the seventh gate had ripped his muscle fiber's to shreds. He could see the tired, but still very much alive Uragi Rimonō standing back up even after assault of the Daytime Tiger had overcome him.

"Burandon...forgive me..." And with that, the Green Beast of Konoha had passed out, his body in too much pain to be moved.

Uragi was huffing and panting. He could still feel the power of the gem flowing through him, he could still taste his newfound godhood! But he'd still been through so much, he was seriously beginning to doubt if he could handle Naruto, Sasuke and the others that were _still_ left to challenge him. He needed to end this. Now!

With no more words, he charged up, digging into the full destructive power of the gem. An enormous bubble of crimson chakra began to form. It was the kind of power that could easily blow up the entire village at least ten times over!

This was it. At long last...the end had come...

"URAGI!"

The old man's eyes snapped open as he slowly looked to the source of the voice. _"You!"_

Standing before him, all alone, was that blonde-haired boy that had defied him so often this day and caused his so much annoyance. Shinachiku Uzumaki was glaring at him in dead serious determination, a fire burning within his soul.

"Brave of you boy," the old man said. "But look around you. I have defeated nearly ALL of your village's forces! I have laid **waste** to your city! And now you stand before me all alone?!"

"I'm never alone," the boy said. He looked around the battlefield; his heart was heavy. "I own them, all of them. They sacrificed everything for this chance."

"What chance?"

"The chance to finally even the playing field." Focusing his mind, Shinachiku closed his eyes. 'Now Kurama!'

A familiar shroud of red chakra enveloped the boy's form. The Nine-Tails was channeling his strength into him, at the expense of his father's strength. The boy then pulled two things out of his pocket...two glowing gems, one blue, the other green.

"WHAT?!" Uragi screamed.

"AAAAGGGGHHHHH!"

Shinachiku charged at full speed at the old man, who fired crimson blast after crimson blast at the boy, but thanks to the speed boost he was receiving from Kurama, Shinachiku dodged all of those attacks until he finally made it to the old man himself.

'Please...let this work...'

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Shinachiku poured his chakra and his imagination into the gem, while at the same time grabbing hold of Uragi. The intense power of the gem's chakra was burning his hands even as the fox was rapidly trying to heal him...

...

...

...

And then, the impossible happened. In a flash of mixed blue and green light, the red light that had colored Konoha throughout this terrible, horrible day and night had completely vanished...as had the gem's keeper.

Yes! Uragi Rimonō had disappeared from sight. All that remained in his place was the blonde-haired Genin. The son of the Seventh Hokage stood alone...but he seemed to be in a trance. His eyes were glowing, glowing with the same mix of blue and green that was seen when his enemy disappeared...the same two colors as the chakra gems that he was still holding his hand.

The battlefield became silent. Those who still had the ability to stand up all marveled at what the boy had done and the state he was in now. For all of the heroic sacrifices that they had made today, this boy alone made perhaps the greatest sacrifice of them all.

A distance away from him, those that were closest to him were on the edge of suspense, and a number of them were consumed with fear. Sakura was crying into her husband's chest as Naruto wrapped his arms around her, tears welling up in his own eyes as well.

Sasuke lowered his head, staring at the ground. Karin was right next to him with her head in her hands and tears were welling up.

Sarada was left to just stand there as tears flowed down her face. She knew what the plan was and she was in on it. But to actually see it now...It was unbearable.

Hanami was the only one who could not hold in her grief. As tears flowed readily, she screamed up to the heavens... _**"ONICHAAAAAANNNNNN!"**_

* * *

Whoa! Exhausted? I know I am. This one has to be the single longest chapter I have written for this entire story, and probably the longest chapter I will write.

You may have noticed that the title of this chapter is "The Final Battle, Part One." My original plan for this chapter was to end the final battle here...But unfortunately, this chapter had so much going on, so many characters that had already showed up to defend their village and do their part to protect their home, that I felt a writer's obligation to not leave any loose ends and give everybody something to do. The downside of that is that it made this chapter very, very long! The upside, however, was that it also made it very, _very_ epic! I put a lot of work and a lot of research into it and I feel proud of myself for that if nothing else. I really hope all of you guys enjoyed it too.

So...about that cliffhanger. You're probably anxious for me to tell you exactly what Shinachiku's plan is and what happened to both him and Uragi at the end? Well...sorry, but I can't tell you. All I can tell you is that it was a major risk that totally changes the landscape of the final battle. Actually, I'm going to challenge you to see if you can figure it out for yourself. Think about it, he used the Mind Gem and the Space Gem together. How could you combine two magic gems, one that grants control over the mind and one that can teleport people?

For each character, I tried to give them their moment by singling out their best, most powerful jutsu. As I've said that required a lot of research, mainly on the Naruto wiki. As a writer, I can say that showing so many strong and experienced shinobi throwing their abilities at Uragi while he has the power of the gem and for Uragi to overcome them so easily really puts Uragi over. Some of you might be tempted to criticize that this makes Uragi too overpowered, but that was always a point of the chakra gems from the beginning, that they give someone who has them the power of a god.

I finally got around to bringing back Gamasenshi after I first introduced him way back in Chapter 5...This is something I'm not necessarily proud of. I introduced him back then expecting to get better use out of him, but as this story took shape that just ended up becoming one element that became harder and harder to find a place to fit in.

On the other hand, I am pleased with the not-so-subtle imagery of the three kids—Shinachiku, Sarada and Hanami—with their own summon, just like Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura before them, and then Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade before them. In case you want to know, Hebihime's name literally means "Snake Princess," since she is apparently Manda's daughter. Meanwhile, Suragutome's name means "Slug Maiden."

This was also the ultimate payoff of Randamu's magic sachel ability. Like he stated so elegantly, he's an fanfic character that can break the Fourth Wall and he has the ability to pull whatever he wants from absolutely nowhere, just like the character he is inspired by, Deadpool. The rules don't apply to him and never have, so he can and will do whatever he wants and doesn't necessarily care whether it makes any sense within his own universe...such as pulling a freaking minigun out of nowhere despite this being a universe where, otherwise, guns and other caliber weaponry don't seem to exist!

As for references, Shinachiku's line "Uragi may be stronger than of us...but he's not stronger than _all_ of us," was taken from, of all things, the 2015 "Fantastic Four" reboot (or "Fant4stic" if you prefer). Now, like most people out there, I don't think this is a very good movie, and as a Marvel fan I dream of the when we _finally_ get the Fantastic Four movie that we deserve! But, that line that Reed says to his team about how together they can overcome Doom does pretty much sum up the message of this battle against Uragi: that when the small and weak band together as one they can often be enough to bring down the big and powerful; the many outclass the one.

Right after that, Naruto's follow-up speech to rally his forces into battle was directly based on Aragorn's heroic speech at the Back Gate from "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." By extension, that enormous charge everybody make towards Uragi was inspired by everybody following Aragorn into battle after he says "For Frodo." Guy's comedic falling behind due to his wheelchair was similar to how in that charge, Merry and Pippin fell behind due to their own size.

Mebuki carrying a tantō with her during her Genin and Chūnin days was another callback to an unfinished comic by the immensely talented LadyGT, a comic with also inspired me to set up a past friendship between Mebuki and Kushina in "Heaven and Earth Together At Last." In that comic she actually carried a baseball bat instead of a sword, but I made a change to it since, obviously, it would be a more effective weapon in wartime battle.

Furthermore, Mebuki's quip about it being better than a frying pan was a callback to a filler episode where some of the kid's mother's use frying pan's to fend off some sumo wrestlers.

Since I already mentioned Fantastic Four, Akatsuchi telling his golem that its time to clobber Uragi was my homage to Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing.

Udon pointing out that the possibility of defeating Uragi was 3,720 to 1, and Konohamaru not wanting to hear it, was based on C-3P0's warning to Han Solo about the risk of entering the asteroid field in "The Empire Strikes Back."

I never got to do much with this one idea, but it was fun to reveal that when Shinachiku was younger he had a phobia. Ophidiophobia is defined as "fear of snakes." Much like some of the filler episodes gave Sakura a (temporary) fear of frogs, I gave Shinachiku a fear of snakes, a very common fear among people. Also, given the treasure hunt nature of this story, one could _maybe_ take this as an homage to Indiana Jones...or not.

Jūgo, for the second time in this story, used the famous "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" quote from "The Incredible Hulk."

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope I still have you all hooked for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!


	53. Chapter 50--The Final Battle, Part Two

Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the climactic chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

This is it you guys! The battle for Konoha ends here, and it ends in a place you probably didn't expect too. I really tried to make this climax to the battle as surprising as I could, and a lot more centered on specific characters than the previous chapter was. I'm really not sure how good of a job I did, but that's up for all of you to decide.

So, with all of that said, let's get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 50: The Final Battle, Part Two**

"Ugh...Wha...?"

Shinachiku opened his eyes and found himself inside of a giant, blank space. It was white, surrounded in a shroud of thick grey fog. It was so thick that he could not see anything in front of his face.

'What the...? Did it work?'

The boy started walking; he didn't even know how long it was that he was walking for. It was as if time did not exist within this place.

'This...This is what its like in here? But where is...?'

Shinachiku's thoughts were cut short when he felt a familiar power. In the fog of the void, he could see an intense red glow. It was getting stronger and stronger...The red light consuming everything, EVERYTHING!

The boy felt himself growing weak. It was like his very will was weighing his entire body down. It was as though this red light was literally overwhelming his entire world.

_"...Even those who have the purest of hearts may find themselves corrupted by the gem's influence if they are not careful. Such is the price of such power."_

The old man from the cave's words echoed all around him. It was giving the boy a splitting headache. "Stop it."

_"Shut up and mind our own business! _I_ found the gem! _I_ brought it with me out of that cave! You've all seen what it can do! I have to keep it safe! And I'll take down __**anybody**__ who takes it from me! Its mine! My own! My precious!"_

Now the voice was not the old man's, but his own. It was the words he'd threatened his family and all of his friends with back in the forest. "Stop it!"

_"Its mine...mine...mine...mine...mine..."_

A flash of red appeared within the pupils of the boy's eyes.

_'...Mine!'_

**"STOP IT!"**

The crimson was receding, or rather, it had stopped itself from engulfing him. Shinachiku took note of the silence. He heard one more voice from the past echo in his head, the voice of his father:

_"This is where your story begins son, but that story is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"_

"No!" Shinachiku shouted aloud. "No! You will not take me again! Not even in here! I don't need your power. I don't need you to make me something great...I already am something great! I am Shinachiku Uzumaki...and this is **MY** story!"

The red light that had consumed his world receded. It retreated back towards its starting point. Through the clearing fog, Shinachiku could see a bizarre labyrinth of staircases, some going up, some going down, some going sideways, some leading into each other, and some leading seemingly to nowhere. It was like some sort of surrealist painting brought to three-dimensional life. Many of these staircases did lead to doors, doors that the boy could only assume led to either some of his deepest secrets or his darkest memories.

But before all of these surreal staircases, there was the blank space with the flat surface. Here, he could see where the source of the red light was emanating from...It was exactly the person he was looking for, his enemy and, for the moment, his current tenant.

'There he is,' the boy said to himself. 'I can do this...My will is strong, the gem won't take me here. This in **my** story. This place is **my** world...'

The facts accepted, the blonde walked forward until he was close enough for the Taka leader to sense his presence.

"YOU!" Uragi shouted. "Where a I?"

Shinachiku took only a moment to regain his composure, the regain his awareness of his surroundings, before addressing his enemy. "You're inside my mind."

"WHAT?!"

"Kurama gave me the idea. I used the Mind Gem and the Space Gem together to teleport us both inside of my own consciousness."

"Why would you do this?"

"Because none of our jutsu were having any effect on you. The mind was the only place where you were still vulnerable...I think you know that."

Uragi said nothing...because the boy was right. When he faced the Yamanaka woman and her son he felt particularly nervous because of the terrible damage they might do to his mind.

Shinachiku smirked. "I hope this isn't an inconvenience for you."

The boy's sarcasm was the last thing the old man needed to hear. "Why take such a reckless risk and bring me here? Why not attack my own mind instead?"

"Because that's your mind; you have the advantage there. But here..."

Out of nowhere, Shinachiku marched straight up to his nemesis and punched him right in the face!

"Here, I..." The boy punched the old man again. "...AM..." He punched him again. **"...KING!"**

Shinachiku landed a punch so hard that Uragi, even with the Power Gem still coursing through his veins, was sent flying a quarter of a mile before he landed with a thud.

Where did he land? On one of the gravity-defying staircases. Shinachiku leaped upon him, punching him again and tossing the old man into the air, where he landed on top of yet another staircase directly above their heads. The boy leaped up himself, landing on his feet upside down, and thus right-side up on the other staircase.

The boy laid a super strong falcon punch to Uragi's gut, sending crashing hard into yet another staircase. Leaping upon him, this time the old man tried fighting back. But this was mainly a brief taijutsu duel that saw them fighting down multiple flights of stairs in every direction, in this realm where gravity has little meaning.

After one of the hardest and most brutal punches his could possibly deliver, the boy was upon him again seemingly instantly, grabbing Uragi by the collar. "Welcome to **my** world!"

Punch after punch, kick after kick, Shinachiku refused to let up his brutal assault on the Taka leader. As this was happening, the grey fog started to turn a reddish-orange color. It was almost as if a familiar chakra was at work here, as if some other, living force was acting out to make the boy stronger...

As they fought on an upside down staircase, Shinachiku formed a shadow clone to rotate his chakra while he concentrated on gathering and compressing it. "RASENGAN!"

The boy slammed the jutsu directly into his opponent's chest. The attack sent the old man spiraling back down to the ground until he collided with the ground. "AAGGHHH!"

Uragi fell to his knees before standing back up. He was feeling wobbly even as the power of the gem was continuing to fuel him.

"You're tired Uragi," Shinachiku said marching up to him, grabbing him by the shirt and slamming his fist into his face. "You may think you're a god, but you're still just as human as the rest of us!" The boy punched him again. "You've taken too much damage from too many of my friends one after another, and now you can barely focus anymore."

Shinachiku angrily tossed Uragi over his shoulder and threw him down on the ground. "But me...I'm still fresh. I can keep going. I'm inside my own mind, I know this world better than you ever will."

He grabbed Uragi be the collar as the entire world seemed to morph around them. Instead of the big, empty void, the world began to shift into the inside of a large, lavish house. Shinachiku was slamming the old man to the floor of an atrium.

"This is my home! **Konoha** is my home!" He picked his enemy up and glared him in the eyes as a fiery glow was reflected in his own pupils. "And you are not welcome here anymore!"

With that, he flung the old man straight through a wall and into a large living room. He landed in the center of the floor before the boy kicked him even further so he fell into an open fireplace...It is only because of the effects of the chakra gem that the hot flames were not burning him.

"Foolish boy!" Uragi scoffed as he stood back up. "Your mind or not, you are still a boy up against **me!** If your entire village could not stop me, what hope have you to do so alone?"

Shinachiku smiled. "I'm not alone."

A wave of reddish-orange energy flowed around him, almost as though it were coming out of the walls of his family house. The chakra was floating around the boy right before the Taka leader's eyes, it was transforming him. Within seconds, the power had consumed him and gave him the same appearance that the boy had on the battlefield.

"The Nine Tails..."

Shinachiku nodded once. "Kurama has a neural link with me. I can take his power straight from my father. Don't you see?"

A chakra arm flung out and grabbed the old man by the throat. "I'm invincible in here!"

Shinachiku used his chakra arm to fling him up through the roof. Uragi made a hole in the roof and landed on the second floor. Looking around, he saw himself in a dojo, a padded white training room that he'd always heard that Naruto and his family used for private training during their off hours.

Shinachiku leaped through the hole and landed on his feet. He threw a Kurama-enhanced right hook straight to his enemy...But then the old man caught it and glared at the boy in rage.

"Arrogant child." Uragi channeled the power of the gem through his hand and into the boy's body. It sent a pulse wave that burned him greatly, forcing Kurama's chakra to immediately heal the damage dealt to him.

Uragi fired a blast of crimson energy directly at the boy, sending him crashing into the far wall of the dojo. Shinachiku broke through the sliding door of the meditation room his father would sometimes use to focus his mind or commune with Kurama after or during training. He did not have much time left to react before Uragi grabbed him and slammed him through the nearby wall, into the armory. Shinachiku was hit with enough force that the sharp weapons stored in that room pierced and cut his skin, drawing blood.

"AAAAGGGHH!"

Uragi kicked Shinachiku while he was still recovering. He kicked the boy back into the main floor of the dojo, where he stood over the child in disappointment.

"Come now, where is all that confidence you had but a moment ago?"

Shinachiku regained his composure and took a fighting stance. "I won't let you win!"

Uragi gritted his teeth. "So be it."

The two foes charged at one another, their colored energies flowing off of one another. Uragi fired a beam of energy that Shinachiku dodged, the beam instead leaving a massive indentation in the floor. The boy came back around with his finger poised in points for critical strikes. Uragi recognized the form immediately and grabbed the boy's arms.

"Pressure point combat...impressive, but pointless."

He flung the blonde through not one, but two walls! Shinachiku crashed through not only the dojo but the hallway outside, landing inside his family's private library. Shelves of books and scrolls came crashing down and littered the room.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: THUNDER SPEAR!"

Uragi, like the kind of mighty god he claimed himself to be, hurled a spear composed of pure electric chakra at the boy. The young blonde was able to dodge the jutsu, but the spear set many books a blaze. The stench of scorched paper filled the room.

"AAGGHHH!" Uragi launched yet another blast of the red chakra, and this time the cloak of the fox's chakra absorbed much of the impact before the sheer force was enough to send the boy crashing through the wall through another two rooms! He landed inside the ruined mess that was once his father's home office. In fact, the boy found himself shattering Naruto's desk with the weight of his impact.

No sooner had the boy come too then Uragi cut off his oxygen by grasping him by the throat! He struggled to break free but the old man's death grip was strong and firm.

Uragi said no words as it was now **his** turn to fling his opponent up through the ceiling up to the third floor. He landed in a room with pink painted walls and plushie animal toys everywhere. He knew this place immediately: he was in Hanami's room.

Uragi leaped up through the hole and was about to blast the boy in the face, but then Shinachiku made a familiar hand sign. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Six identical clones of the boy puffed into existence, all of them were engulfed with Kurama's chakra just like their creator was. One of the clones kicked the traitorous villain against the wall as four of them split up into groups of two and started forming their grandfather's famed jutsu in the palm of one of their hands.

With two of the clones puffing out of existence, the two remaining clones slammed their attacks into the enemy at the same time. "DOUBLE RASENGAN!"

The force of the combined attack was more than enough to blow the old man through the wall and into the next room. The real Shinachiku couldn't help but grimace to himself even as the two remaining clones he'd created were helping him prepare his own signature attack. 'Sorry sis...'

Uragi got back up on his legs again when he took note of the space he was currently in. It was clearly the room of a preteen boy, one filled with posters, books, ninja weapons, a laptop computer, video games, the usual apparel. It was the room of the very boy whose mind he was trapped within right now.

Shinachiku's final two clones dissipated as the blonde held his new, signature jutsu in the palm of his hand. Stepping through the wall of his precious little sister's room and into his own living quarters, the son of Naruto and Sakura had his eyes obscured, blackened by the hanging bangs of his now dirty blonde hair. The boy had taken so much abuse both in and out of his own mind that the clothes he wore were in ragged condition.

"Get the hell out of my house." That was all the boy said before thrusting his jutsu at his opponent. "WIND AND FIRE RELEASE: RASENGAN!"

The flaming sphere of swirling chakra slammed straight into the crimson-clad villain's body, launching him clear through the balcony door of his room and sent him falling three floors down to the backyard below! He landed straight inside the swimming pool with a splash so large that it practically flooded the yard. In fact, what water that didn't flood was absorbed into the earth because Uragi's impact cracked a huge fissure in the bottom of the pool.

With seemingly little effort, Shinachiku leaped down from the balcony and walked over to the pool. He saw the old man barely starting to stand up as he jumped into the crevice in the Earth, not caring at all about the puddles of water that splashed as he walked through them.

Picking the old man up by the collar, the boy shouted: "Have you had enough or do you want some more?!"

Uragi started chuckling. He didn't say another word as he released a pulse wave of crimson chakra that knocked the blonde away from him.

Shinachiku got back up and charged at his enemy. His attacks and blocks were rapid but the old man had gotten a second wind and was dodging him with relative ease.

"Enough!" Uragi backhanded the boy with enough force to push him several feet.

Shinachiku was in the process of getting back up, the reddish-orange fog of his mind fueling him again and further enhancing his power...But then, with seemingly inhuman speed, Uragi was upon him. With the force of the power gem at his disposal, he landed a kick on the boy's leg's so strong that it shattered the bone inside.

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"  
**

...

* * *

...

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Shinachiku fell to his knee and then fell over. Everybody on the battlefield was in shock from the young warrior's sudden, horrific scream of agony.

"SHINA!" Naruto, Sakura, Hanami, Sasuke, Karin and Sarada all shouted as one voice.

"What happened to him mommy?!" Hanami screamed out in a panic.

"His leg is broken!" Sakura diagnosed in fear. "Naruto! What's going on?!"

"It seems that severe damage that Shinachiku is suffering within his mind is manifesting on his physical body." Sasuke answered before Naruto had the chance to say a word.

Naruto sighed. "He's right."

"Is that possible?" Sarada questioned.

"If its severe enough, yes." Sasuke turned to his best friend. "Naruto, didn't you duel with the Nine-Tails to get control of the beast inside you own mindscape?"

"Yeah...but I didn't take very much—"

"Because your mother was helping you and you were ready to face the Nine-Tails by the time that battle came. That's why your body didn't take any damage that day."

Naruto nodded in complete understanding, but Sarada shook her head. "I don't understand—"

"Whenever I talk to Kurama inside my mind," Naruto started explaining, "the result of our agreement manifests on my physical body. That's way you can see Kurama's chakra whenever he gives it to me. When I foolishly tried ripping off the seal during Pain's attack, the overwhelming power turned me into a monster, and it was only because of my father that I regained control of myself."

"But what does this have to do with my Shina?!" Sakura demanded.

"Sakura," Sasuke spoke, "Shinachiku is fighting inside his own mind against a physically far superior foe. And he's doing it alone! Even with Kurama's power flowing through to him he's still at a _massive_ disadvantage. If the boy can have his leg broken in his mind, it breaks on his real body also, simple as that."

"But we have to do something!" Sakura protested.

"Wait!" Naruto shouted. "Something doesn't feel right..."

* * *

_BAM! ...BAM! ...BAM!_

Uragi was laying furious blow after blow, punch after punch, kick after furious kick, into the now crippled blonde Genin that had been arrogant enough to bring him here.

"Foolish child!" Uragi shouted as he stepped on the boy's already fractured leg, causing him to scream in total agony. "You think just by bringing me to this place you can overcome me? All you've done is bring me to the place you are most vulnerable."

The old man made his point by grabbing the blonde by the throat and slamming him back into the ground with superhuman strength. Blood was now leaking from gashes and cut across his face and limbs, his clothes were a devastated mess.

And then Uragi threw the poor boy into the mental projection of his family home...or rather, he went directly **through** it! The power of the gem gave the old man enough strength to send the boy crashing straight through the walls of his parent's master bedroom, out the other side into the third floor hallway, straight through the master bathroom and out the other side of the three-story house where he landed in a crater.

Shinachiku was barely able to move. He leg was broken, he was a bloody mess, and he's been taking too much severe damage even with Kurama's chakra fueling him. When did this plan go so completely, utterly wrong?

That being said, Uragi wasn't exactly at his peak either. What the boy said earlier was right, all the punishment that he took in the physical world has made him exhausted, so all the punishment that he was dishing out now was taking all the focus and concentration and outright fury he had left in him.

"No more games."

Uragi stuck out his hand, palm flat, and released a _massive_ blast of energy that utterly incinerated the Uzumaki Estate. **All** of it! All the rooms, the family's possessions, their memories, it was all gone in a flash of crimson light.

Shinachiku was shocked. A product of his mind or not, this was still his home, the only one he'd ever known, and this maniac utterly annihilated it!

Uragi walked through the smoldering rubble of the house, the family's numerous heirlooms blown to pieces, and photos of the family all together burning to cinders...

The old man, still glowing with blood red power, walked up to the boy and stomped his foot on his heart, causing him to cough up blood.

"This ends now." Uragi held his hand out, pointed directly at the boy's face. The energy of the gem was charging up.

Shinachiku closed his eyes, this looked like the end...

...And then Uragi saw something in the distance. Some bright light far off where the orange chakra the boy had been using this whole time appeared to be flowing from. Squinting his eyes, he could make out what the source of the light was...a door. A single, pearl white door that stood alone in the void.

The pieces fell together quickly for the old man. If that was where the orange chakra was coming from, then there was only one place where the door could be leading to.

'So, that's the bridge. Behind that door must be...Heh! Perhaps I'll be able to take on two generations of nuisances at once today.'

Looking down at the beaten boy laying beneath him, Uragi spat and cursed. "You are no match for a god boy. Lay here and accept that."

Leaving the boy to die from his wounds, Uragi abandoned the child no longer worth his time and started walking towards the door.

"No...wait..." was all Shinachiku could utter out as the Taka leader walked out into the void and stood before the mysterious door.

Without fear, the old man grabbed hold of the handle and flung the door open. stepping through...

...

...

* * *

...

...

**"Grrr! Uragi Rimonō! How dare you come here?!"**

The old man stared up at the great tailed beast that loomed over him with its nine tails wagging and its razor sharp fangs barred for mauling.

"Heh. Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit himself. The legends do not undersell your magnificence. I knew that there had to be some sort of bridge between you and the boy for him to take any of your chakra...Which means..."

Uragi took in his surroundings. It was a dark, dank sewer with rusted, dirty metal walls and water covering the entire floor. "...This is the inside of Uzumaki's mind."

**"If you know so much about me, then you should know to _fear_ me human!"**

"HA! I have become far more than any mere human!"

**"Not without the other six chakra gems you're not!"**

"All in good time. But first..." Uragi raised his hand and charged up for another attack. "...I calculate that the awesome power of the chakra gem grants me the power to destroy anything instantaneously...In fact, it might be a match even for you."

Even Kurama, the Nine-Tails himself, felt a shiver of legitimate fear coursing through his spine. **"You wouldn't DARE!"**

Uragi smirked and he charged up even further. "Try me."

"Excuse me?"

Uragi felt a sudden tap on his shoulder as he heard the sound of the unexpected voice. He turned around and received...a Rasengan right to the chest.

"AAAGGGGHHHH!" Uragi screamed aloud as he collided with the wall of the enclosed space. Standing back up with anger, he looked up to face his sudden challenger...Naruto!

"_You!_ How are you here?"

"Its _my_ mind old man, I can come here whenever I want!"

Naruto spun and rotated his chakra, adding his wind nature to the technique forming in his hand, then changed its shape. "WIND RELEASE: RASENSHURIKEN!"

The Orange Hokage slammed his own self-invented jutsu into his enemy. After the jutsu detonated upon its target, the center sphere of the jutsu produced a vortex within which the demigod became entrapped in. Countless microscopic wind blades appeared within said vortex on a cellular level...Oh so Naruto thought.

Uragi quickly used the power of the gem to throw a barrier of crimson chakra up to shield himself against the insane number of wind blades it created.

'Damn!' Naruto cursed. "You're up!"

"BLAZE RELEASE: KAGUTSUCHI!"

Uragi was stunned by the unexpected intrusion and almost did not have the time to throw his barrier back up before Sasuke applied shape transformation to the black flames of his Amaterasu. He manipulated the flame at will, using them to engulf his enemy with scorching black heat.

After the flames passed, Uragi could not believe his eyes. "Uchiha! How can you possibly be here?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

* * *

"He's _WHAT?!_"

"Yes Sakura, Uragi's found the doorway between Shina's mind and mine and now he's crossing over. I can feel it."

"That means you can fight him then?" Karin questioned.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

Sakura wasn't going to stand for this. "I'm coming with you!"

"But Sakura—"

"No buts! You're my husband and that's my baby boy in there!"

"You'll need me too," Sasuke insisted.

"And Shina's going to need me!" Sarada proclaimed.

"Me too!" said Hanami.

"But how are we all supposed to—?"

"That's how!" Sasuke said pointing to the two chakra gems he was still holding in his hands, the ones he had used to the bring Uragi into his mindscape in the first place.

Karin seemed confused. "So...what? Does one of us just touch the gems while the rest of us all hold hands?"

Sasuke raised his eyebrow. "Precisely."

* * *

"WHAT?!" Uragi screamed in shock. "You mean all of you followed us here?!"

Naruto smirked as he charged his next jutsu. "You're damn right!"

* * *

"SHINA!"

The blonde could have sworn he heard the sound of his mother's voice, but he had to be going crazy. It was impossible! Slowly he opened his eyes and could make out a feminine shape with pink hair running towards him.

_"M-Mom?!"_

Sakura immediately fell the her knees and wrapped her boy in a tight hug. "Oh my baby boy! I'm so sorry!"

"M-mom, w-what are you...How are you here?"

"Karin ran up next to Sakura and cleared it up by saying, "Its a long story kid, we'll tell you later."

"Oniichan!" Hanami ran up and wrapped her arms around her big brother. "Oniichan, I'm so glad you're okay."

He wrapped his arms around his sister. "I'm okay Hanami."

Sakura quickly went into medic mode and started healing her son's leg. "I can heal you as much as I can, but you're going to need time for that bone to heal properly."

"I don't have time!" Shinachiku protested. "I have to finish this!"

"Shinachiku Uzumaki! You have done everything you can, now let your father and godfather handle this!"

"But—"

"No buts! That's an order!"

"Aunt Sakura," Sarada interjected, "The least we can do is help Shina over through the doorway to see the fight."

"Sarada's right mom," Shina agreed. "I can already feel Kurama trying to heal me just like you are. Please! I _have_ to end this!"

Sakura looked upon her son, her heart mixed wit terribly conflicted feelings... 'He acting just as stubborn as his father.'

Time was of the essence, and the pink-haired kunoichi was at war with her duties as a ninja and her duties as a mother. What was she going to do...?

* * *

**"TAILED BEAST BALL!"**

Kurama opened his jaws and gathered all of his chakra before releasing it as a colossal ball of pure annihilation! This was a fabled power that can level entire villages in just one shot. No mortal man could possibly withstand it...

...Unfortunately, Uragi Rimonō was no longer a mere man. And so, he used all of the strength of the Power Gem to release an intense, colossal beam of pure crimson chakra energy, one so powerful that it could have single-handedly obliterated all of Konoha had the old man ever taken the opportunity. But instead, now, it was the power that the Taka leader needed to counter the awesome destructive might of the most powerful of the nine tailed beasts.

The clash of power was unbelievable. The entire mindscape shook and quake from the sheer magnitude of power. Not since Naruto himself dueled Kurama for control of the fox's chakra had this place seen such an insane display of power.

Naruto and Sasuke both had to shield their eyes from the force of the titanic beam struggle. But even at that, the two old friends shared a silent exchange. They knew that the old man could only have so much focus left, and if he was giving all he had to hold back Kurama, then this might, _finally_, prove to be the opening they've been waiting for.

Getting a firm foot hold, Uragi pushed his power further and further forward, thereby pushing the power of the Tailed Beast Ball further back. Kurama, for his part, was flabbergasted that this human had enough control over the gem (or the gem had even control or him) to actually counter him is such a way.

The great struggle continued. The walls were fracturing. It almost looked like Naruto's mindscape could collapse in on itself and destroy them all!

And then, the unthinkable happened...Uragi won! The power of the chakra gem was just barely enough to overcome even the invincible Tailed Beast Ball and knock down the mighty Nine-Tailed Fox! ...But that incredible victory came at a price. Uragi was so exhausted by now that, the power of a god or not, he, whether he still believed it or not, was still only human, and he could not go on much longer...

...And that was **exactly** what Naruto and Sasuke were counting on! The two of them charged together side by side, Naruto creating his Rasenshuriken in his left hand, and Sasuke his Kagutsuchi in his right hand. The result was both jutsu merging together as one, an oversized shuriken of wind chakra on one side and a large pinwheel of black flame on the other.

"SCORCH RELEASE: HALO HURRICANE JET BLACK ARROW STYLE ZERO!"

The combined jutsu launched Uragi backwards while simultaneously engulfing him in a swirling mass of black flames, perfectly balanced in a ratio of wind to flame, each wind nature complimenting the other.

The two warriors stood side by side as the old man got back up. He clearly had burns all over him, but the gem was still able to shield him from what would otherwise have been a lethal display of combined power.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Uragi boasted arrogantly before being forced to catch his breath. "Haven't you...figured...it out...by now?! I'm _invincible!_" The old man laughed again like a maniac, so manically that he almost seemed to forget his obvious fatigue, until he let out a cough. "What...what hope...have you...alone?"

"They're not alone."

The old man turned his head in the direction of the doorway. What he saw caused him to curse himself. Shinachiku was standing there, his mother and girlfriend helping him to stand up as his leg was still weak and he could barely walk on it, even with Sakura's masterful healing. Karin and Hanami were also at his side, his little sister holding his hand as he walked.

"For all that power you have," the young blonde said, "that remains your true weakness. That's why I broke free of the gem while you've become its slave. That's the reason you'll lose today."

"What are you saying boy?!"

Shinachiku paused, his green eyes not blinking as he stated at his enemy. "...You're alone Uragi, and I am not."

"FOOLS!"

Uragi charged up his power once again and was about the fire an incinerating blast directly at the blonde nuisance and all those standing with him.

"NO!" Karin shot out dozens of her adamantine chains from her body that held the old man in place, forcing him to lean his body upwards to force the blast at the roof of the Naruto's mindscape. The explosion made the ground quake, caused debris to fall and nearly crush everyone, and the water on the floor to violently splash everywhere. It was a close call, but at least they were alive.

"I've got him!" Karin yelled out. "Now hurry! Finish it!"

"This is for messing with my family!" Hanami charged her strength into her fist and lay a punch straight into the old man's jaw, just like her mother taught her.

The punch was enough to create a small crater in the steel floor of Naruto's midscape making the entire room quake yet again!

'That's my girl...' Skaura smiled in pride that her daughter was already able to display such a sense of strength, so much so that she almost overlooked the utterly gobsmacked expressions on her son's and husband's faces.

'Holy shit!' Shinachiku cursed inside his head.

'My little girl...' Naruto could hardly believe it even if he was already told of it and now saw it with his own two eyes.

"Shina?" Sakura asked in worry. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I'll be fine mom. Just go do it!"

"Hai!"

As his wife was readying her next attack, Naruto was preparing his own. He reactivated his Sage of Six Paths Mode once again, transforming his body into its most powerful form.

"MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto created eight shadow clones of himself, all of whom were in the same Six Paths Mode as himself. Together, they all began forming their attack.

Sakura charged up her strength once more, ran at her top speed and struck the enemy that nearly destroyed her entire family. "FULL BLOSSOM: CHERRY BLOSSOM IMPACT!"

The blow connected in Uragi's abdomen, and the impact crushed him into the ground, destroying a large part of the steel ground within her husband's mind.

Sarada charged in next her signature jutsu at the ready. "SCORCHING CHIDORI!"

Her father's lightning jutsu was enhanced when her arm caught on fire. She thrust the attack into the weakened and struggling enemy, burning and shocking him all at the same time.

Uragi was falling further and further into unconsciousness, the punishment was so much. Meanwhile, Naruto and his clones were preparing the most powerful jutsu he had in his repertoire, a combination of multiple gifts he'd been granted from the nine tailed beasts.

"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted. "GO!"

"RINNEGAN!" Sasuke reactivated his most powerful dōjutsu to form his powerful avatar. "SUSANNO!"

The Uchiha's Susanno appeared as it did on the battlefields of Konoha, able to fit within the space of his best friend's mindscape. The prodigy ninja wasted no time creating a longbow and arrow infused with his lighting nature chakra. "INDRA'S ARROW!"

The lightning arrow shot from the bow and towards the old man. Yes, yet again the gem helped shield him, but the shielding was weakening. It would not take much longer.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke shouted. "Is it ready?!"

"Yes!"

"Then do it! Do it NOW!"

Naruto had created a Rasenshuriken from his bond with Kurama, while each of his shadow clones created one of their own, each infused with a special chakra property akin to one of the other tailed beasts. One clone had created a Rasenshuriken with magnet and sand abilities, and composed of blue flames, another one composed of swirling water, yet another composed of burning lava, then one that was made up of boiling gas, then one that was made up of acid that resembled soap bubbles, one with scale powder, and finally one made up of splattering ink.

"This ends now!" Naruto cried out both to his opponent and to all of his clones. The time had come for his final attack. "SAGE ART: SUPER TAILED BEAST RASENSHURIKEN!"

The nine different Rasenshuriken were thrown upon Uragi all at once, triggering nine simultaneous, colossal explosions that rocked the mindscape. It truly was a spectacular display of strength and power that no one had seen since the battle against Kaguya during the Fourth Great Shinobi War. In fact, this technique was so powerful that some have gone so far as to call it 'the most marvelous ninjutsu of all time.'

The space fell into dead silence after Naruto's miraculous jutsu left its mark. It felt like it took forever for the smoke from all of the explosions finally clear up, but when it did...The old man was finally down for the count!

"I-Is is over mommy?" Hanami questioned.

Sakura glared at the fallen enemy in suspicion for several seconds before he relaxed and smiled. "I think so sweetie."

"So, does that mean we can go home?" Karin questioned.

"No," Naruto stated. "There's still one last thing the do."

Naruto walked up to the fallen body of Uragi Rimonō. Looking down upon the body, the old man appeared unconscious, the crimson aura that had be surrounding and empowering him this entire time now almost completely gone. Truly, it appeared that this long and costly battle was finally over.

But as Naruto himself said, there was still one more thing that needed to be done before it was too late. He reached for the Power Gem, only barely glowing with power, like a weak, flickering red light bulb. The Orange Hokage focused his mind, trying to sense any traces of life within the old man, but he could find none.

And so, he reached out to the unconscious traitor's chest and grasped his hand around the gem...And that was when something happened that Naruto did not notice...the old man smiled to himself.

**"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

With the last blast of energy he could muster from the gem, Uragi allowed the energy to flow up Naruto right arm. His bandaged prosthetic arm, artificially grown from Hashirama's cells, was consumed with destructive power! The bandages fried to a crisp first, exposing the pale, white appendage for all to see before it too was quickly incinerated. Naruto's blood curdling scream of agony was the stuff of nightmares.

"NARUTO!"

"DAD!"

"DADDY!"

Sakura, Shinachiku and Hanami reacted in abject horror and their husband and father was partially mutilated before their very eyes. His arm was incinerated on a cellular level until he was every bit as armless as he was after his titanic final battle with Sasuke eighteen years ago. Blood was oozing out of his arm at an alarming rate as even Kurama was having to work hard to heal him within his mindscape itself...

...

* * *

...

**"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Everybody on the battle field of Konoha who could still stand was caught in alarm at the sound of their Hokage's blood curdling scream of agony. This entire time—which to them, in the physical world, was only a handful of seconds—they'd waited for Naruto and his friends and family to get back from where the Space Gem had sent them and return home. What they saw instead was utterly traumatizing.

Naruto was screaming because his bandaged arm was suddenly engulfed in a familiar crimson chakra, just before the bandages where burned away and the ugly white arm he hid underneath was destroyed right in front of them, blood spilling everywhere.

Everybody was terrified, especially the children, but for Minato and Kushina the sight of their only son in such a state was like their worst nightmare made real.

The red-haired kunoichi could do nothing to hold back her terror. "NARUTO!"

* * *

Back inside Naruto's mind, the blonde Hokage fell to his knees in pain, and Sakura wasted absolutely no time running over to the love of her life as she rapidly began healing him. Karin ran over to him to, offering to let him bite her shoulder to help speed up the healing process. Like back at the Valley of the End, the priority was to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding before more drastic medical attention could be given.

Sasuke readied his Chidori for one more strike against the tired, weak old traitor.

"NO!" a voice shouted. "He's MINE!"

Shinachiku, still on a limp and mostly broken leg, vowed that he was going to be the one to end this...and he had just the right jutsu to finish the job once and for all.

'I'm sorry mom, I know I made you a promise...'

* * *

_"Shina," Naruto said, "I still can't believe you did that! You mean to tell me that Kakashi and Konohamaru taught you how to improve a Wind Release: Rasengan?"_

_"Wind and _Fire _Release: Rasengan," Shinachiku corrected with a tinge of smugness in his voice._

_Sakura was also hugging her son in congratulations. "I knew my little guy would turn out to be something special!"_

_"Yeah, well, the jutsu still needs a lot of work."_

_"Well of course dear, you had to rush learning it in such a short amount of time—"_

_"That's not what I mean mom." The boy whispered in the woman's ear so only she could hear. "The jutsu you saw was just a first step. What I've been working on is something much bigger. But I haven't quite gotten it right and besides, I know from dad's book what it can do to you every time you use it."_

_Sakura's eyes widened as she gasped in horror at what she feared her son was getting at. "Shina! You can't be serious!"_

_"I am mom. I was thinking of calling it: "Wind and Fire Release: Scorching Rasenshuriken."_

_"I don't care what you call it! You know full well what the Rasenshuriken did to your father when he was about your age. As your mother I don't want to see you risk hurting yourself like that just to—"_

_"I know mom, I know. That's why I didn't use it today. We have too much going on right now to risk me getting put in a hospital room."_

_Hearing her son say that was already making Sakura feel a lot better. "That's my son." She planted a light kiss on the boy's cheek, much __to his embarrassment, and they agreed to leave it at that and keep this their little secret._

* * *

He had made her that promise, but after everything else that has happened, this seemed like the only option he had left. 'I'm sorry mom...' "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Two identical versions of himself appeared and began their work as Shinachiku started gathering his chakra...

'Uragi must be stopped, no matter the cost...'

_You got the touch, you got the power  
Yeah!_

"Hey!" Sasuke questioned aloud, "What the hell is that kid doing?"

Only Sarada knew what her new boyfriend had up his sleeve. "Shina..."

As Shinachiku gathered all of his chakra, with some minor help from Kurama, one of his clones was working on helping him maintain rotation and compression into a familiar shape, while the other clone focused both on changing the jutsu's chakra nature and its shape. The Rasengan formed in the boy's hand, before it emitted four large points around the central Rasengan core, resembling a fūma shuriken.

'Please...let this work...'

_After all is said and done  
You've never walked, you've never run  
You're a winner  
You got the moves, you know the streets  
Break the rules, take the heat  
You're nobody's fool_

Gradually the jutsu grew, taking a very familiar form that his father so often employed in battle...until, much like his other signature technique, the swirling wind shuriken started to change...

_You're at your best when the goin' gets rough  
You've been put to the test but it's never enough_

"Yes! Its done!"

The technique that the boy had created caught itself on fire, resembling a large shuriken that had been lit aflame on all sides, not just within the core, ready to scorch any opponent that opposed him! The jutsu let out a loud screeching noise accompanied by the whoosh of an intensely flickering flame.

"WIND AND FIRE RELEASE: SCORCHING RASENSHURIKEN!"

_You got the touch, you got the power  
When all hell's breakin' loose  
You'll be riding the eye of the storm  
You got the heart, you got the motion  
You know that when things get too tough  
You got the touch_

Uragi, utterly tired and on the verge of passing out himself, now stared in some sense of fear at the boy's new technique. "No!"

Hanami and Sakura stared on even as the latter was continuing to work hard to save her husband's life.

"Shina..."

"Oniichan..."

"URAGI!" the boy shouted. "This is where this story ends! This is where we win!"

With that, the young blonde let out a rebel yell as he harnesses all the strength and endurance he had to stumble forward as fast and desperately as he could on his broken leg, his flaming jutsu still in hand.

_You never bend, you never break  
You seem to know just what it takes  
You're a fighter  
It's in the blood, it's in the will  
It's in the mighty hands of steel  
When you're standin' your ground_

Shinachiku kept stumbling forward, as Uragi tried to gather his nearly exhausted willpower to summon forth one more blast of power from the gem. As the boy kept walking forward, he fell to one knee from the intense, almost unbearable pain in his leg.

What kept the boy going, however, were the words that his father said to him before this adventure first began: _"This is where your story begins son, but that story is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!"_

'I will dad...I promise, I'm going to win!'

_And you never get hit when your back's to the wall  
Gonna fight to the end and you're takin' it all_

And so, Uragi got himself back on one foot again as he pushed forward towards his enemy, finally making it.

"NO! NO!" the old man panicked in fear, himself too exhausted to gather any more power from the gem.

**"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!"** With a mighty yell,, the boy slammed his flaming Rasenshuriken straight into his enemies form.

_You got the touch, you got the power  
When all hell's breakin' loose  
You'll be riding the eye of the storm  
You got the heart, you got the motion  
You know that when things get too tough  
You got the touch_

The flaming blades of the Rasenshuriken burned and cut their way through the shielding the gem provided. Cutting through, the central sphere finally detonated, consuming Uragi's entire body in a vortex of wind and red hot flame. The old man screaming in agony as within the inferno he could feel countless microscopic wind blades striking him all over his entire body. It was so many blades that even Sasuke and Sarada could not count how many of them there were with their Rinnegan and Sharingan, respectively.

The wind blades, red hot from the effects of the fire, were damaging his body on a cellular level, attacking his chakra circulatory system itself, effectively shattering it to pieces.

_You're fightin' fire with fire  
You know you got the touch_

Naruto, even in all his pain, looked on in amazement, but much more so in pride at what his son had accomplished. "That's my boy..."

_You're at your best when the road gets rough  
You've been put to the test, but it's never enough_

Shinachiku stared up as the jutsu was finally starting the die down and the inferno was weakening. Uragi's no longer moving body fell back to the ground, splashing head first into the water as the wind and fire dissipated.

_You got the touch, you got the power  
Yeah!  
You got the touch, you got the power  
Touch!_

"Its over." That was all Shinachiku said as he limped over to the body, no truly unconscious and just barely alive, and reached for the Power Gem.

...

But as soon as he touched it, he felt that familiar wave of power rushing back to him. That same power that had corrupted his own soul as badly as it had Uragi himself.

The boy could already feel it taking over his tired mind once again, his body beginning to glow with that aura of crimson chakra. 'The gem is mine...mine...'

...And then, he felt another hand rest on top of his own, the two of them holding the gem together. Looking up in surprise, he saw her face.

"Shina!" Sarada cried out. "Look at me! I'm here for you! I won't let it take you again!"

The boy was stunned, before he felt another, smaller hand take his empty one. "I won't let you go oniichan!"

Hanami shut her eyes and grasped his hand tightly, true to her word, she never wanted to let go.

"Sarada...Hanami..."

Shinachiku was cut off when he felt a strong, masculine hand upon his shoulder. "I'm here too son!"

Looking up, he saw his father, his right arm missing but the bleeding stopped thanks to his mother's advanced healing, smiling down at him and filling him with warmth the way only he could.

"Dad..."

He then felt another pair of arms warp themselves around his torso and hug him from the back. "Shina! Mommy's here too. Don't let it control you."

"Mom..."

He felt another woman's hand reach out to him by the arm. "I'm here too Shina!"

"Aunt Karin..."

Then he felt one last hand reach out to him, another masculine hand that rested upon his other shoulder. "We're all here! You've got to come back to us!"

"Uncle Sasuke..."

They were here, all of them. All of them were here for him...And that was all he needed to snap himself back to reality and overcome the lure of the Power Gem once and for all!

It was just like he told the old man, about why he would lose while they would win today: _"You're alone...and I am not."_

The red chakra consumed the seven of them...And then the light subsided. The power of the gem retreated back into the palm-sized relic from whence it came!

"SEAL IT!" Shinachiku shouted.

Sasuke quick unraveled a sealing scroll he kept on his person and made some quick one-handed hand signs to seal the gem inside the scroll...And just like that, it was all over.

The chaos of the battle had run its course. The enemy was defeated, the gem was secure, and the fighting was at an end.

Shinachiku Uzumaki took a deep breath before he looked around him to see his family and friends, and even a certain giant fox spirit, all smiling at him. He smiled back with a goofy thumbs up. "Thanks you guys..."

...And with that, the boy passed out.

"SHINA!" Sarada, Sakura and Hanami shouted.

"He's fine," Sasuke insisted. "He's just exhausted. He's had a hell of a day."

"I think we all have," Naruto agreed. "Just let him sleep."

Sakura took her precious little boy into her arms, hugging him as he slept. "Oh my Shina, mama's so proud of you."

Naruto felt a tug on his pants and looked down to see the worried look in his daughter's beautiful sapphire eyes. "Daddy, is oniichan going to be alright?"

He got on one knee, smiled, and place his one remaining arm on her head. "Your brother's going to be alright sweetheart. We just need to give him plenty forest and healing."

"He's not the only one who needs healing," Karin said, pointing out the obvious.

Naruto looked to his right side and remembered his missing arm. "Oh, yeah...Talk about déjà vu."

Naruto then felt Sasuke place his own one remaining hand on his shoulder. "Come on dobe, lets get you and the kid home."

"Hai."

Sasuke went over the unconscious body of Uragi and flung him over his shoulder. No sooner had he done that than Karin stood in his way. She punched him square in the gut, then wrapped her arms around his neck for a deep, passionate kiss.

"What was _that_ for?"

"That's for dying on me and then coming back you jerk!"

Sasuke smirked. "I love you two babe." He leaned in to kiss her once more.

Naruto looked on as he placed his hand on his wife's shoulder. "Sakura..."

The pinkette turned to see her husband's smiling face. Something came over her also and she, still holding her son, claimed his lips with her own. Naruto happily closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around her back.

"I love you so much Naruto," she said with tears in her eyes.

"I love you too Sakura."

Sarada smiled at both sets of parents before looking at the blonde-haired boy asleep in his mother's arms. She smiled at him, her heart feeling a flutter, before she felt a tiny hand take hold of her own. She looked down to see a little girl with pink hair looking up at her.

"Arigato." That was all Hanami said, and yet it was enough. Sarada and the girl embraced in an almost sisterly hug.

"Hey!" Sasuke called out. "Lets go you kids! We're getting out of here!"

"Coming dad!" Sarada shouted.

"Hai Uncle Sasuke!" Hanami said.

When the kids joined them, and after Kurama wished them farewell, the seven shinobi and their unconscious prisoner vanished from the mindscape in a mix of blue and green light.

* * *

In that same mix of blue and green light, the company reappeared back on the battlefield. All of their friends and allies were rallying around them. Sai, noticing the unconscious prisoner Sasuke had flung over his shoulder, signaled for one of his Anbu forces to bind Uragi's hands and feet.

"NARUTO!" Kushina yelled as she and Minato rushed up to the front of the crowd. "My baby! What happened to my grandson?! **AHH!** And what happened to your arm?!"

The Orange Hokage sweat dropped and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Hehehe...its kind of a long story mom."

"Naruto," Gaara interrupted politely. "Is it over?"

Looking back over at his son, sound asleep in his wife's arms, the Seventh Hokage took a deep breath and said, "Yes old friend, its over."

* * *

WOW! Its over! Its _finally_ over! I have to confess to you guys that after writing this story for so long now, I can't help but feel very proud (and kind of relieved) that I finally made it to the end of the battle! I REALLY hope I made all of you happy with the climax and that this ending was to your liking.

But since I just said that, let me clarify that when I say 'ending,' I only mean the end of the big battle and of the main story. There is still one last chapter to come to tie up the loose ends. So please do me a big favor and remember to come back for that one too. LOL!

The idea of the final pat of the battle happening inside of Shinachiku's mind was not part of the original plan for this story, it was something that I decided on while I was writing Chapter 49. I wanted to come up with something to make Shinachiku's final battle with Uragi unique and unexpected. And then I saw the ending of "X-Men: Apocalypse," when Xavier fights Apocalypse on the astral plane. That got me thinking about how many different creative ways the differing powers of the Chakra Gems could be used together, and it gave me this crazy idea that maybe the Space Gem and the Mind Gem could be used together to teleport yourself into somebody else's mind! In the worlds of Neo from "The Matrix": "Whoa..."

The one thing I do kind of regret about taking the battle in this direction is that I wasn't able to brainstorm that much truly mindbending imagery to sell the surrealism of this environment. The fight on the multi-directional stairs was the best I could come up with, and even that was inspired by "Relativity," a famous lithograph print by M.C. Escher.

The imagery of their fight destroying the Uzumaki House was, again, inspired by Xavier and Apocalypse's fight in "X-Men: Apocalypse." I featured the Uzumaki house in so many of my stories that I thought seeing Shinachiku destroying it (even if it is just a construct of it inside his mind) would be bittersweet and appropriate for this climax.

The doorway into Naruto's mind was something I felt obviously had to be there in some form because, as I've already established, Kurama created a link between him and both of Naruto's kids, so there had to be a connective bridge somewhere. And that allowed me to change the setting midway through to set the second part of the battle inside the dark, flooded dungeon environment we all recognize as Naruto's mindscape.

Yep! I blew up Naruto's arm for the second time! I have a reason for that which you'll see in the final chapter, but it seemed like the right thing to do to shock my readers and so that both father and son each pay a physical price for facing Uragi.

I set up the Wind and Fire Release: Scorching Rasenshuriken back in Chapter 42 and I intentionally saved it for this final moment. Seriously, a Rasenshuriken that is entirely engulfed in fire! How awesome an image is that?!

The song I used for Shinachiku's final defeat of Uragi is "The Touch" by Stan Bush. For those of you who don't know, the song was originally written for the Sylvester Stallone movie "Cobra," but instead it was used very memorably in "The Transformers: The Movie." It was also featured in the movie "Boogie Nights," but it was its use in Transformers that inspired me to use it here and it was a song I was set on using for the climax from the very beginning. I believed that, despite any inherent sense of 80s cheese it may have, the song would highlight Shinachiku's victory over Uragi similarly to how it did Optimus Prime's final battle with Megatron and later Rodimus Prime's defeat of Galvatron and Unicron.

The scene of all the other's placing their hands on Shinachiku to help him overcome the Power Gem's control was inspired by two sources. The first was the climax of "Guardians of the Galaxy," when the Guardians all hold hands to gain control of the Power Stone long enough to destroy Ronan. This was a scene I was expecting to incorporate from pretty much the beginning, but by the time I finally got here it didn't seem to go with the themes I had set up to have Shinachiku outright kill Uragi, even after all that he's done.

That brings me to the second inspiration for the scene, the classic "Justice League Unlimited" episode "Divided We Fall." At the end of that episode, the final part of the Cadmus story line, the Flash overcomes the odds and single-handedly defeats a fusion of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, but at the cost of vanishing into the Speed Force. He gets pulled back by all six of his teammates coming to his rescue. and that is very much the atmosphere of this scene between Shinachiku and his loved ones.

I think that is all I have for this time. I really hope you guys enjoyed this climactic chapter, I thank you all for coming along on the ride, and I hope to see all of you back for the epilogue.

Until next time, see ya!


	54. Chapter 51--The Epilogue

Hello everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with the _final_ chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

Yes, we've finally made it! After nearly two full years straight of working on this story, along with its numerous offshoots, I almost cannot believe that I am actually saying this, but this is the true final chapter of SFA. It was an amazing experience that helped me to grow as a writer, not to mention got me in touch with many other great writers on this website and made me numerous fans and friends.

When I first began this project, I had no idea if even one person would take an interest in it, yet alone that I would attract as may readers as I did. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

There will be a lot of loose ends that I will be resolving here, and there is one scene in particular where I feel I am seriously pushing the limits of my T rating. But you'll all have to be the judge.

Once again, thank you all so much for all of your support during this journey, and I hope you all enjoy the ending.

With all of that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

**Chapter 51: Epilogue**

"Ugh...Where...?"

Shinachiku Uzumaki cracked his eyes open, a light shining bright enough to almost force him to shut them again immediately. There was much that he didn't know, but he could feel that he was lying down on something very soft.

Blinking a couple of times, he was able to make out that it was looking up at some sort of white ceiling. Somehow, mostly because he had come here to visit his mother so many times as a child, he was able to quickly piece together where he was.

'How did I get into the hospital? I thought...?'

**"You passed out after battling Uragi kit. Your mother brought you here as soon as you returned home."**

Shinachiku paused. 'Kurama, is that you?'

**"If it were anybody else's voice inside your head, I would be **_**very**_** concerned if I were you."**

The boy rolled his eyes as his head still rested on his pillow. 'Very funny fur ball. So where is everyone?'

**"Most of your friends are healing from their injuries now. Some of them took some pretty nasty beatings but they will survive."**

'How long have I been here?'

**"Almost three days."**

'What?!'

**"That's right. You were so exhausted that your body needed that much time to recover. Not that anybody minded of course."**

'Huh?'

**"You're their hero kid. The entire ninja world knows what happened between you and Uragi. Your mother immediately rushed you and your father to the ER as soon as all of you got home."**

'DAD! Where is he?! Is he alright?! What about his arm?! Where's—?!'

**"Relax kit! Your father's fine. And don't you go panicking about his condition right now. For the time being, I think you should focus on healing yourself...Or have you forgotten about your own injury?"**

Shinachiku stopped communing with the fox long enough to wake up to reality and look down past his waist. His leg was wrapped in a cast, suspended off of the bed by a pulley.

"Whoa..."

**"I helped speed up the healing process as much as I could, but most of my immediate efforts needed to go towards helping stop your father's blood loss."**

Something came over the boy in that instant. 'Is he...?'

**"I can heal your father when he gets a few cuts and scraps and burns kit...But I can't regrow entire limbs for him."**

The boy rested his head back on the pillow. 'So my dad's going to have to go through that bonding procedure all over again huh?'

**"Yes, but he won't be alone this time."**

Shinachiku raised his head again in confusion, this time speaking aloud. "What do you mean?"

**"Worry about that later kit. Right now it looks like you have some visitors."**

Kurama was right. As soon as he ended their telepathic conversation, the door to Shinachiku's hospital room opened and in came a pair of familiar young ladies.

"ONIICHAN!"

Hanami was so excited to see her big brother was finally awake that she practically dived onto his bed and gave him an enormous hug. It was only when he couldn't help but cry out in pain from the contact she was making with his leg (not to mention all of the other bruises he had over his body) that Sarada had to politely tell her to let him go.

"Welcome back Shina."

The blonde smiled. "Its good to be back Sarada."

The raven-haired Uchiha didn't bother waiting another second, instead choosing to just lean over his bed and plant a deep, passionate kiss right on his lips. She cupped his head in her hands while he wrapped his arms around her back.

Hanami felt a tinge of jealously for only a second, but she smiled as she stood in the background.

When their kiss broke, Shinachiku was the first to say those three magic words: "I love you."

The girl smirked. "I know."

After that, the girls called a nurse to bring the boy some food while they all got down to talking. After all, he had a lot to catch up on...

* * *

It turned out that quite a few new developments had gone down ever since Taka's infiltration was defeated. Shinachiku rested in his hospital room for a couple more days before he was finally cleared to leave the hospital on a pair of crutches. The whole time Hanami and Sarada rarely left his side, especially Hanami. Naruto and Sakura paid him plenty of visits too of course, but sadly, lets face it, as the Hokage and the head of the entire hospital after such a massive attack on the village, both of them were extremely busy.

All of the evil secret society's double agents that had come out of the shadows to fight were arrested, stripped of all rank, and sentenced to imprisonment in the Strict Correctional Facility. Those who tried to resist their sentence were...well, lets just say that they were severely punished.

After Taka's invasion of Konoha was exposed, word quickly spread over the airwaves and the Internet to the other great shinobi villages. Similar conspiracies were afoot in Suna, Kiri, Kumo and Iwa, and thank goodness their villages fared much better than Konoha did. Double agents were exposed, stripped of rank, and punished with imprisonment just as they had been in the Hidden Leaf Village.

As for their leader, Uragi Rimonō, former elder of the Hidden Leaf Village, he was sentenced to a life of solitary confinement in the darkest, dankest, most isolated cell in the prison without possibility of parole. The effects of Shinachiku's Scorching Rasenshuriken had taken their toll on the old man and then some; apart from the severe burn marks over his body, the piercing stings of the countless wind blades attacked his circulatory system to such a degree that, unlike his burns, there was nothing that any medical ninja in the village could do to heal him. The damage was so great that Sakura and Tsunade surmised that, similar to the effects of his organization's own red serum, he likely would never be able to use jutsu ever again. He even had some mild difficulty breathing because of a blow Kakashi had delivered to his left lung that had not healed as well as he might have hoped.

For someone who once had the power of a god, he was now nothing but a sad, old, pathetic shell of man. In his deluded quest to remake a world free of war and suffering, he had lost touch with humanity itself and now will pay for his sins by living the rest of the his life the way he always felt in his heart...alone...

Sadly, the damage was not only limited to Uragi. Much like his father before him, and as Sakura had warned her son, the power of the Rasenshuriken had consequences for Shinachiku as well. Because he did not yet have experience with the technique other than as a melee weapon, this meant that his arm suffered some minor damage as well, not nearly as bad, but the Rasenshuriken has been labeled as kinjutsu for a reason. If he kept using the technique the way he had ever again it could end his career like it almost did his father's.

Many of Naruto and Shinachiku's friends had to be checked into the hospital for special treatment. Chōji needed a few days rest and then go on a splurge diet to gain back all of the weight he lost using his Butterfly Bullet Bombing technique.

Far more serious though were Lee and Burandon's conditions, both of whom tore their muscle tissues and fibers from opening too many of their gates. Sakura and Tsunade had to work long and hard to heal the extensive damage done to both the father and son, much to Tenten's relief...Of course, it now fell upon the weapon mistress to, _somehow_, make sure that both of her men stayed down and got the recovery time they needed before going into another round of overenthusiastic over-training yet again.

Kakashi was also checked into the hospital due the hole that was blown into his shoulder by Uragi. Thank goodness the hole wasn't any larger and Sakura was able to heal the wound up as quickly as she did or else her sensei may no longer be alive now!

Ōkami's critical wound was healed by Sakura while on the battlefield, but Hinata insisted that her son be checked into the hospital nevertheless. Luckily the boy did make a full recovery, although the blow he took did leave him with a scar on his chest and back. Tsuki, consumed with guilt that her twin brother took such a lethal blow to save her life, swore that one day she would repay her debt to him.

All three members of the Konohamaru Corps were in casts due to broken arms and legs. The three old friends took the opportunity to catch up on old times, and Konohamaru kept his promise to them to introduce them to his star pupil. Shinachiku, ever the well-mannered son of the Seventh Hokage, was happy to meet them and paid them complete respect.

Jiraiya and Neji both took their time getting accustomed to their new lives, catching up with their loved ones. Jiraiya spent as much time as he could with Tsunade (when he wasn't busy with any of his usual writing and...err, _research_, that is). There were even some wild rumors about some of the local villagers complaining about excessively loud noise akin to moaning and grunting coming from the residence they shared as well...

As for Neji, he focused on getting back in touch with his clan and his new in laws, not to mention his cousin's children who he was meeting for the first time.

Kushina and Minato, not surprisingly, spent the bulk of their time with their new family. They constantly paid their grandson a visit in the hospital, played with their granddaughter after school, checked up on her son while he was at work, and paid a visit to their currently very busy daughter-in-law at the hospital.

As one can well imagine, Sakura has had her work _seriously_ cut out for her these last couple of days. She completely rose to the challenge and had her staff working round the clock, double shifts, to tend to all of the wounded. But there was no one she pushed harder to get all of the work done than herself. Tsunade, Shizune, and especially Naruto were all getting very worried about her.

...And then, it all came to a head when, exhausted from overworking, depletion of chakra, and a lack of sleep, Sakura Haruno Uzumaki collapsed! Se was rushed to a hospital room of her very own and ordered by her own staff (and her husband) to focus on getting plenty of rest before she even considered going back to work again.

That was where Naruto was right now. He rudely burst out of his current meeting with the elders and recklessly rushed off to the hospital to join her at her bedside. Taking up a chair beside her, Naruto took her hand in his own.

"I...I guess that was pretty stupid of me wasn't it?"

"No, no Sakura, it wasn't. You were doing your duty to you people. Now you just get some rest and let the rest of us take things from here."

Sakura tightened her grip on her lover's hand before she asked: "Shina?"

"He's doing alright, I just paid his a visit this afternoon. Hanami's doing fine too."

"Do...Do they know?"

Naruto frowned. "Yeah...Yeah I told them. But they understand and they both want you to get some rest."

"I'm sorry...I suppose this means you need to find another doctor to operate on your—"

"Don't you even worry about that. I'm in no rush and neither is Sasuke. Take all the time you need, we can deal with that later."

There was a moment of silence that passed between the two of them before Naruto finally broke the ice. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For staying with me, throughout all of this. I mean, first we both became fugitives, then we went on the run with bounties on our heads, then we found out a shadow organization had taken over our entire village under my very nose, then we both thought our son might have been dead, then we got attacked by my parents, then we got drugged and captured and put in prison, then we—"

"Naruto! We've been through a lot the last few days, I get it!"

"Gomen...I just mean that _I've_ put you through a lot these last few days."

"None of that was your fault Naruto."

"Then why do I still feel like it is?"

"Because you're being stupid, that's why."

Naruto could tell from her voice that she was being totally sincere, not condescending. He chuckled a bit before speaking. "You always were my most blunt and honest critic."

"Of course I am, I'm your wife."

"_And_ my doctor, _and_ one of my best friends."

Sakura smirked. "Exactly."

Both of them shared a wholehearted laugh, just like old times. But then, after a couple of seconds of speaking, Sakura started talking again. "Things are going to be very different now, aren't they?"

"...Yes. Taka's still out there, we have no idea how many more of them there are, and that 'master' Uragi was talking about, and from what Sasuke said there are still three more of these Chakra Gems out there waiting to be found..."

Sakura could sense him trailing off. "And?"

He paused for just a moment before continuing. "...And now I'm suddenly wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do about it now without screwing things up again."

Sakura took his hand in her own. "You should do exactly what you've always done...Do what you believe is right. Whatever road you take they'll follow you. _I'll_ follow you."

He actually appeared surprised by his wife's choice of words. "You really mean that?"

She smiled and nodded. "Besides, if you do manage to screw things up, then _somebody_ has to be there to pull your ass out of the fire you knucklehead."

The two of them laughed again, this time even bigger than the last time. But that stopped when she tightened her grip on Naruto's hand and looked into his bright, sapphire eyes.

"I love so much Naruto."

"I love you too Sakura."

The two of them closed their eyes as Naruto leaned in and claimed his wife's lips in one of the most romantic kisses they'd ever shared. Little did they know that in the doorway two people were looking in upon them. A blonde haired man was smiling in pride as he wrapped his arms around a beautiful woman with long, flowing red hair. The woman was letting out tears of joy at the scene she was witnessing.

* * *

"Alright, are we ready?"

"Yes m'lady."

Sakura and her team of medical ninja were fully dressed in their surgeon's scrubs, masks and gloves on, ready to get to work on their patients...both of them.

Two operating tables lay side-by-side. On the right was a blonde-haired man with blue eyes and whisker marks on either side of his face. On the left was a black-haired man with dark eyes. Both of them were here for the exact same reason, and both of them agreed that it was for the best that they take care of it together, as they should have done a long time ago.

"Naruto, are you sure your wife's feeling well enough for this?"

"Relax, she's had plenty of time to rest back up and she's the best in the world at what she does. Besides, she _insisted_ on leading the operation."

"Yeah, but...aren't there usually, you know, _rules_ about performing operations on family members?"

"Normally, yes...But I suppose if you would rather trust this to someone other than the most renowned medical ninja in the world, I'd understand."

Sasuke actually felt an eyebrow twitch at that. "Touché dobe."

Naruto chuckled for a second before getting serious again. "But seriously man, I'm proud of you for finally doing this."

Sasuke was silent for a moment, turning his head away explaining. "You know, when I first took your son on that mission with me, he asked me why I never grew my arm back like you did." He turned his head back to face his friend. "You know what I told him?"

Somehow, someway, Naruto knew the answer. "...Because you didn't feel you deserved it."

The Uchiha didn't acknowledge with a 'yes' or even nod his head in confirmation. He merely continued speaking. "I should have spent my life as a prisoner, tied up in a straight jacket with seals over my eyes. But you believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I had to atone for all I've done. I had to pay you back for all you've done for me."

Naruto understood. "You know you never needed to make anything up to me Sasuke."

"From your point of you."

Naruto sighed. "And people say _I'm_ the stubborn one."

The two friends actually laughed together, but that laughter died down soon enough. No more words needed to be said. For all he'd done, both in life and in death, Sasuke's debt was repaid.

"Alright boys," Sakura said, "are you sure you're ready."

"I am honey," Naruto said...with a subtle grimace, since he was well aware of the intense pain that he was in for.

"Sasuke?"

The Uchiha was silent for only a moment. Yes, it really was time to move on, this to put aside a symbol from another time. "Yes, I'm ready."

Sakura nodded. "Alright then. Bring them in!"

Her staff brought in both of the artificial limbs, both of which were pale white and ugly looking, but they would at least make each of them feel whole once again.

Sharing another look, Sasuke did have a brief moment of elation akin to worry. "Hey, umm...does it _really_ hurt as bad as you said it does?"

Naruto's response was to give him a sly smile. Sasuke actually sweated. Still, the Uzumaki offered up his remaining hand, which the Uchiha took hold of.

It may be extremely painful experience, but at least the two of them were going to be going through it together. One way or another, it would all be over soon...

* * *

Sasuke stood in front of a mirror. He was holding his new left arm, now wrapped in gauze bandages. For the thirty-five year old man, it was almost like a dream seeing that missing piece of himself finally restored.

Naruto came up to his friend and stood at his side. "Feels weird doesn't it? Being whole again? At least now you'll be able to use two hands to perform jutsu again."

The former missing-nin let his new arm fall to his side and tried his best to act tough. "I'll learn to adjust."

The blonde turned back to face the mirror. He saw the two of them in the reflection, and that's when it really hit him how much the they both had changed. "Look at us, when did you and I become grown men?"

Sasuke smirked, "You look like Obito with blonde hair dye."

"Ah! Don't say that!" After the two of them shared a laugh, Naruto spoke again. "I mean it though, _look_ at us. It feels like just yesterday Kakashi-sensei was giving each of us the bell test...Now where both grown men with families." Naruto turned away from the mirror to look his old friend in the eyes. "Where does the time go?"

"Time doesn't stop for any of us dobe, its part of getting older. Its like the old man always used to say, 'Its up to us to raise and guide the next generation.'"

Naruto smiled. "In speaking of whom, looks like you're going to get used to calling me brother-in-law, eh?"

"What are you babbling about?"

"I just mean that our kids are dating now...who knows how far that's going to go."

We'll have to see...But Naruto, can I make one thing clear?"

"Sure, what's up?"

Naruto was caught off guard, and maybe a little intimidated, when Sasuke all of a sudden grabbed him by the collar and glared him straight in the eye. "It doesn't matter if I'm that boy's godfather or not, if your son ever does _anything_ to hurt my little girl, I will personally hunt _both_ of you down and kick your asses! Do I make myself clear?!"

The blonde sweat dropped nervously. "...Crystal."

Nodding his head in satisfaction, he let go of the blonde. "So what's the agenda now? You and I both know that this isn't truly over yet."

"Oh I know. That's why I'm going to be calling a special Kage Summit Meeting very soon to come to an agreement about what to do about Taka. Shikamaru's been speaking to me with some pretty big ideas."

"And Uragi?"

Naruto sighed. "The way I see it, he's lost all his ability to use his chakra, and he'll be spending the rest of his life rotting inside a jail cell. That sounds like punishment enough to me without getting the death penalty involved. Besides—"

"You hope that by keeping the old man alive you might be able to get some more information out of him about Taka and this 'master' he speaks about."

"...I was going to say that if I order him executed I'd risk proving everything he believes about me to be right...But yes, that too..."

Sasuke was actually impressed. "I have to admit that if I were in your position, I don't know whether I'd have had the self control to make a decision like that... So what about reconstruction?"

"I've already made a call to an old friend of ours. He says he and his team would be more than happy to help out with that."

"Let me guess: Inari?"

"Yep. Kid's grown into a fine young man ever since his grandfather passed away, rest his soul."

"Well, not all of us can get lucky enough to spend another lifetime with the ones we love."

There was a dead silence as Naruto contemplated whether he was right to do what he wanted to do next. "...Sasuke?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Listen, we have the other three chakra gems sealed away for now until something is decided, but after everything I've gotten back recently...well, I felt it was only fair."

"Felt _what_ was fair?"

Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gem, one glowing with an enchanting yellow light. Sasuke could not believe his eyes. He knew right away what his best friend was offering, but he could not believe it.

"Naruto? You can't mean...?"

"I'm only making the offer Sasuke. No matter what anybody else says you deserve a chance at happiness as much as any of us."

"My mother...my father...Itachi..."

"All of them. You can have all of them back again if you want. All you have to do is wish for it."

Sasuke stared at the glowing gem in his friend's hand for several seconds. The yellow light reflected in his eyes like some sort of serene enchantment. Tears were even starting to form in his eyes. This was everything he ever wanted, right in front of him. Just one wish and his family, no, his entire clan could be returned to him...

"No thank you dobe."

"Huh?!"

"I appreciate the offer, but I saw the ones I love on the other side, and they were at peace there. I don't know how to explain it, but after seeing them like that...I feel like I can move on now."

"Are...are you sure about that?"

"...I am. It's time for me to move on from the past and appreciate the family I have now."

Naruto understood, but he could not help but comment on it. "I guess we really have grown up, haven't we? I'm sure they're proud of the man you've become Sasuke."

"Thanks dobe. By the way, how is Shinachiku doing anyway?"

"He's out of the hospital now, but it's still going to be a couple of weeks before the cast comes off."

"Is he taking it well?"

"A lot better than I would have at his age."

"I can well imagine."

* * *

The Uzumaki Estate was seriously totaled during Taka's infiltration. It was no surprise really, Uragi's extensive hatred of Naruto was well known by now and the children had already reported sightings of Taka double agents infiltrating the house when they went in search of Hanami.

It took Naruto's shadow clones about a week to put the house back together, and that was working round the clock! In the meanwhile, the family temporarily moved into the old Hokage Residence. But by now, thankfully, the reconstruction was nearly complete and soon the family would be allowed to move back in again.

Shinachiku Uzumaki was looking up at his home being put back together. He was on crutches and his cast had signatures from his friends and loved ones all over it. He was standing there when he felt a familiar presence standing beside him.

"You know, I ended up trashing a construct of my house when I fought Uragi inside of my mind, but to see it happen out here..."

"You can't help but feel that its somehow its your fault."

"Yeah. I mean, I know its not, but the coincidence is just a little...weird. I just I feel a little out-of-body with myself, that's all."

"I know a little bit of what that's like."

"I suppose you do...Grandpa, I'm sorry about what Taka did to you and grandma."

Minato smiled warmly. "None of that is your fault Shina."

"I know it isn't. I just...I just felt that somebody had to say something."

The Fourth Hokage placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Arigato."

There was a brief silence at the two of them tried to come up with something to say. "So, umm...is it true that you gave dad back your half of Kurama's power?"

"As a matter of fact I did. I kind of took it from him against his will during our fight, so I wanted to make it up to him."

"But then, shouldn't you be, umm..._dead_ again?"

Minato took a quick peak around the area to double check that no one was listening, before he leaned in to whisper into his grandson's ear. "We used to Soul Gem to work around that little problem."

Shinachiku was actually shocked. "You did _what_?"

"Try to keep that a secret, would you grandson? The governments are a little apprehensive about how people are using the chakra gems right now. If anybody found out that your father and I were continuing to cheat death, it might get him in trouble."

There was an awkward silence as the boy took it all in. There was some clear violation of nature going on here, not unlike what Taka themselves had done. On the other hand, if it had not been done, his grandfather would not still be here right now. Hell, if they had not used the Soul Gem during the war, then Sarada's dad would not be here either.

When is it appropriate and ethical to use the power of the chakra gems, and when do you cross that fine line that totally perverts nature and turns us into tyrants against your fellow man? What is the difference between how Naruto was using the power of the gems and what Taka would do? Shinachiku did not have an answer to these questions.

"...I...I promise grandpa."

"Arigato Shina. By the way, didn't you have a date lined up with Sarada, something about blackmail and karaoke if I understand it right?"

Now it was time for the poor boy to blush. "Well, umm...we decided to take a rain check on that until my leg finished healing."

"I see...You know its funny."

"What is grandpa?"

"When your grandmother and I died we were both young, twenty-four years old. And now our son is a thirty-five year old man with a twelve year old son and a seven year old daughter."

"So now your son is eleven years older than you are... Wow... _Wow_..."

* * *

"Aww...that sounds so romantic. Who knew my little boy could be such a charmer?"

"He certainly surprised me. If not for what happened that night, I don't know if I ever would have found my true love."

"And my precious little grandchildren would never have been born."

Sakura and Kushina were eating out together at a local tea shop. In the wake of everything that has happened, they felt it was time to live up to what they'd agreed and set some time aside for some girl talk. It was actually Kushina's suggestion that they meet here, after Sakura had first suggested that they share a cup of coffee, only to panic in embarrassment when she found out that her mother-in-law _hated_ coffee.

"Hey Kushina," Sakura said as she set her tea cup down, "I know this all must be awkward for you."

"What do you mean?"

"I just mean, you know...you're back alive again after what happened the night your son was born, now Naruto and I are already in our mid thirties, you and Minato are grandparents yet you both look younger than we do—"

"Sakura! Sweetheart, its alright. I'm just happy beyond words to be home and see my little boy all grown up. I couldn't be prouder that my Naruto has become such a strong, handsome young man with two adorable kids...Not to mention that he's found such a strong, beautiful young wife."

Sakura blushed. "You really mean that?"

The beautiful redhead took the pinkette's hand into her own. "Sakura, you might not know this, but you and I have met before."

The medical ninja was stunned. "W-What?"

"Oh yes. It was a long time ago, after you mother had just given birth to you and both Naruto and Sasuke were still on the way. You were so cute back then with bright pink hair, wide eyes and puffy cheeks."

Sakura blushed yet again as her mother in law continued. "Anyway, the doctor hadn't determined my child's gender yet, but I just knew in my heart that it was going to be a boy...Then again, I also expected Sasuke to be a girl, but whatever. Anyway, I promised you way back then that my little boy was going to be all yours."

"Wow...So you're not disappointed in me?"

"_Disappointed?_ Why would I be disappointed? Sakura, part of my dying wish was for my son to find someone like me. And when I look at you, I see so much of myself that its actually quite amazing. Plus, I've heard all the stories about that temper of yours, yet another thing we have in common. You're exactly the kind of woman my son needs, and I couldn't be prouder to call you my daughter-in-law."

Sakura could feel tears welling up in her eyes. 'She really means it...she likes me.'

She couldn't fight it. She got up from the table and wrapped her arms around the red haired woman. Kushina, initially surprised, returned the hug as the pinkette whispered "Thank you" into her ear.

When the hug broke up, Sakura couldn't help but notice a strange look of discouragement in the woman's eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I...I just...I've missed so much. I never got to see my little boy grow up, never got to see any of his adventures. I could never be there for him, know what he was feeling or..." She wasn't able to continue as a single tear flowed down her cheek.

Sakura decided that this was as good a time as any for her little surprise. "Kushina, I have a gift for you."

The redhead wiped her face. "A gift for me?"

"I picked it up at the local bookstore before coming today." She opened up her bag and handed something over to her. "Here."

It was a thick, hardcover book, filled with many, many pages. On the cover was a title that nearly made Kushina's heart stop: _The Tale of Naruto_.

"This...This is...?"

"Your son wrote that book after he became Hokage. His entire life up to his becoming a father is recounted right there, including..." Sakura paused before finishing her sentence. "...Including the days he first met you and Minato. Everyone else we know owns and copy. I thought you would like it."

Kushina felt tears coming all over again, some of which dripped and fell onto the cover. Holding the book close to her chest, she turned back to her new daughter-in-law. "Domo arigato Sakura."

"You're welcome."

After accepting the gift, Kushina suddenly got a very devious smirk on her face. "Oh by the way, I've also been hearing some rather crazy rumors going around about you Sakura."

The pinkette got nervous. "W-What kind of rumors?"

"Something to do with the night Naruto proposed to you. Seems you and my son are known for having some pretty wild nights, if you know what I mean." The woman wagged her eyebrows in a highly suggestive manner, all the more to tease her daughter-in-law on her apparently highly active and enthusiastic sex life...yet another thing she and Kushina had in common.

Poor felt like she could die right there. 'Oh God...Naruto, wherever you are, please tell me you're among better company..."

* * *

Naruto was walking down the dark, dimly lit hallways of the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility. The warden was walking beside him, keys in hand.

As the blonde walked, he could hear the snickering, cursing, and booing from the inmates, many of whom just so happened to be former Leaf ninja that had been stripped of all rank and arrested for treason after _intense_ rounds of interrogation and questioning from Internal Affairs.

After going down multiple flights of stairs, the warden led Naruto down to the darkest, most isolated cell in the entire prison, the cell itself was blocked off by a large, heavy metal door. The warden inserted the key and turned it.

On the other side of the door were rows of metal bars, and on the other side was a dirty, disheveled, burned old man, a truly pathetic wretch.

"I can stay with you if you wish, my Lord?"

"No thank you, I'll be fine."

Nodding, the warden went back out the door and closed it behind him. They were alone.

"You must enjoy seeing my like this. Weak, helpless, pathetic."

Naruto didn't show the least bit of sympathy. "You should count yourself lucky that my son didn't kill you, or that I didn't."

"Hmm...This doesn't change anything Naruto. This world is still a smokescreen. War, hatred, decent, they still exist, but you are too blind to see it. As long as the shinobi world exists, there can be no true peace."

"...I agree with you."

"What?"

"I have no idea what you saw, what you've seen on your journey. In fact, I'm not even sure I understand what you were even looking for out there...and maybe you don't understand it either. But you were right about one thing: if Taka was able to infest us so easily, then the Allied Shinobi Forces failed. Its not enough anymore, I can see that now. We need to become something more, something better...And we need to do it to finally defeat _you_."

The old man knew that the Orange Hokage was not referring to himself. "You are right, Taka is still far from destroyed. Taka never truly dies until you cut off its head."

"I think you've got your metaphors mixed up; _Taka_ mean 'hawk', not 'snake.'"

Uragi, even now, was too proud to admit that Naruto outsmarted him so matter-of-factly. "Why are you _really_ here?"

"Because you're going to tell me something." Naruto leaded in, dead serious expression on his face, now with his eyes glowing red with slitted pupils. "Who is your master?"

...

* * *

"Gentlemen, thank you all so much for coming. Lord Hokage will be here in only a few moments."

Gaara, Kankurō, Chōjūrō, Darui, Omoi, Kurotsuchi, and Akatsuchi were all sitting around a conference table. Temari was also in attendance, taking a seat next to her husband, who was sweating bullets.

'Naruto,' Shikamaru thought with grimace, 'you'd better get your ass down here or so help me I'm going to—!'

The door flew open and in stepped a familiar blonde in an orange sweatshirt and a white haori. "Sorry I'm late everybody."

"You had better have a good reason for calling us here on such short notice Naruto," Darui threatened.

"I do." The Orange Hokage took a deep breath before he began speaking. "As you all know, Uragi Rimonō has been arrested and his ability to use chakra has been severed forever. Furthermore, in the short amount of time that has passed since the attack on Konoha, all of you and your separate forces have taken measures to root out any and all Taka double agents within your villages. That being said, Uragi was not the only leader of Taka, as we have all heard word of a mysterious 'master' that is at the head of this organization."

Chōjūrō raised his hand to ask for permission to speak. "Have you had any luck getting more information out of him?"

"...No, no yet. Even in his sorry condition his will remains strong."

"What is this proposition you have for us?" Kurotsuchi questioned.

"I'll allow my adviser to explain."

Shikamaru cleared his throat before he spoke. "All of us believed that the Allied Shinobi Forces were enough to hold back the tides of war and bring about an era of peace, but as Taka's infiltration of our ranks proved, it wasn't enough. We cannot be a casual alliance any longer, we need to take it even further."

"How? " Kankurō asked in confusion.

"Here is my theory: we ought to expand our alliance out to more than just the five great villages, every village in this world should have the right to ally themselves with us. From now on, shinobi missions need not be village specific, but rather, our clients will be aided by teams consisting of all the member nation's shinobi who are found the most suitable for said mission. This will provide equal opportunity to all villages, thus eliminating the need for future conflict."

Naruto than took his turn to speak. "Uragi seemed to feel that something still wasn't right in the world, that deep down feelings of anger, jealously, war, all of it still existed...Maybe he was more right than we want to admit. This way, all shinobi all over the world can be a part of the same network, all on equal, cooperative footing, so we cannot go blind to the suffering of anyone anymore. That way whatever chaos Uragi saw does not have to escalate ever again."

"Furthermore," Shikamaru continued, "we will be a much stronger alliance, one truly unified with eyes all over the world for signs of Taka activity."

"Or any signs of the remaining chakra gems," Gaara pieced together.

"Interesting," Darui pondered. "But how are all of the member villages going to have eyes and ears to best cross communicate?"

Shikamaru had already figured that out. "In the interest of preserving the peace, each member village will have a representative stationed in every other hidden village to discuss common issues and pursue mutual interests."

"What about formal meetings?" Chōjūrō asked.

"The Land of Iron has already volunteered itself for membership and to house a primary headquarters for us," Naruto explained.

Shikamaru then continued with his proposal. "Each village will send a representative to represent their hidden village of origin for our new arrangement. These are encouraged to be shinobi of high value to their villages with successful careers or promising futures, whom will meet monthly in the Land of Iron."

Naruto stood up. "As the Seventh Hokage of the Konohagakure, I nominate my own adviser, Shikamaru Nara, chief organizer of this proposal, for the position of Konoha Representative."

"Second," Gaara concurred.

The other kages then nodded to themselves in silence before they also voted in favor of the arrangement.

Gaara himself stood up next. "Since she already has a foothold in the Leaf Village, I, the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure, nominate my sister Temari for the position of Suna Representative."

The other's agreed, with Kankurō smirking when he saw his sister and brother-in-law holding hands.

"Looks like you and I are going to be working _and_ living together from now on," Temari quipped.

Shikamaru pouted, "My wife is now my coworker. What a drag..."

Chōjūrō stood up next. "Well, with the recent death of my bodyguard and a lack of swordsman I feel truly close enough to trust with such a responsibility, as the Sixth Mizukage of Kirigakure, I feel it best to nominate myself for the position of Kiri Representative."

There were some rumblings to be heard in the conference room, but it was eventually decided to allow for the arrangement.

Then it was Darui's turn to stand. "As Fifth Raikage of Kumogakure, I nominate my friend and bodyguard Omoi for the position of Kumo Representative."

The nomination was heard and the selection was made.

Finally, Kurotsuchi stood up. "As Fourth Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, I nominate my dear friend Akatsuchi for the position of Iwa Representative."

The final nomination was heard and agreed upon. After that, Shikamaru got out a written contract for the five kages to all sign. Once that was done, there was only one last piece of business left.

"So what are we going to call ourselves now?" Kankurō asked. "I mean, what are we? A United Federation of Ninja?"

Naruto smiled. "No, more like a...Shinobi Union."

"...Do you have any idea how corny that sounds?"

* * *

"Gentlemen, ladies, a toast." Naruto raised his glass, signaling for the others to do so too. "To the successful reconstruction of Konoha, and to the formation of the Shinobi Union, and with it, to the dawn of a new era."

"CHEERS!"

Naruto was out for a night on the town at Shushuya, one of the best barbecue restaurants in the village. Joining him were his wife and his and Sakura's parents. Jiraiya also decided to tag along with Tsunade in tow. Shizune wasn't available to come as she had volunteered to baby sit Hanami.

Also joining them tonight were Sasuke and his wife. He and Sasuke were fulfilling the deal they'd made during their battle with Uragi: Naruto would pay for dinner for everyone if Sasuke agreed to open up a tab for a round of drinks.

Everyone raised their glasses and consumed their drinks, except for Hanami who had a soda instead.

"Glad you all could make it out here tonight," the blonde said. "I have to tell you, seeing all of you here with me now, like this...This really does mean a lot to me."

"Ah don't get sentimental about it dobe. Just enjoy your drink and your food as soon as it gets here."

Sasuke's remark got a chuckle out of everyone, Naruto included, as everybody got down to casual small talk.

"By the way son," Minato said, "your mother and I have really been enjoying your book."

The blonde's eyes widened in shock. "W-Wait, you mean you've read it?"

Kushina elaborated. "Sakura gave me a copy as a gift and Minato and I have been reading it together. We're so proud of you son."

"I have to agree," Jiraiya added, pulling out of his robe a copy he had bought for himself. "Speaking from one novelist to another, I've been having a hard time putting it down...even if many of your descriptions of me and my research are more, err, _blunt_ than I would have liked."

There was a big laugh from everyone as the Toad Sage sweat dropped in embarrassment. He quickly recovered though as he came over and placed a hand on his former pupil's shoulder. "You have become a far greater man than I Naruto. You have fulfilled the prophecy that the wise Gamamaru foretold and have succeeded in ways that I never could...You have made me proud son."

Naruto smiled in pride, almost of the verge of welling up. "Arigato sensei."

"You've made me and your mother proud too son," Minato added, Kushina nodding is agreement.

"Aw, guys..."

Sakura smiled in pride at the praise her husband was receiving. She knew it meant the world to him to hear such worlds from both his father and godfather.

Sasuke then raised his own glass back up once again. "To Naruto, the Seventh Hokage!"

Everybody else raised their own glasses. "To Naruto, the Seventh Hokage!"

After everyone took another sip from their drinks, Minato spoke up next. "Oh Naruto, where is that grandson of mine now anyway?"

"He's out with Sarada, dad. Now that his leg is finally healed, they both decided that it was time to own up to that little agreement they made..."

* * *

"All right! Let's hear it for tonight's special guest singer, Shinachiku Uzumaki."

The DJ's words sparked yet another round of applause for the young man. He had already sung at least eight straight songs, at his girlfriend's request. The poor boy couldn't say anything, they had a deal and unless he wanted her to go telling his mom about that, err...mature publication that she found under his bed, he needed to do whatever she said.

'She's lucky I love her.'

Sarada, for her part, couldn't help but enjoy herself. She always loved hearing him sing, ever since she first heard him at that Christmas party a few years ago. Still, eight songs in a row was seriously pushing it, she felt, and she was starting to notice that she wasn't the only girl in the place the seemed enchanted by his voice...including a couple of girls that looked _way_ to old for him.

She decided that she'd suggest only two more songs to make it an even ten. She quickly scribbled them down on a piece of paper and then handed them over to the DJ.

"Oh wait folks! Looks like our hero's lady friend decided to squeeze in two more requests tonight!"

Shinachiku cursed inside of his mind. 'Damn it Sarada! Give me a break!'

The DJ handed him the piece of paper, which he read. 'Hmm...I wonder why she picked _that_ one? ...Alright...'

The crowd went silent as the band started playing again, principally the lead guitarist, who played a few chords before the time came for Shinachiku to begin his song:

_Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road  
__Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go  
__So make the best of this test, and don't ask why  
__It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time_

_It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right  
__I hope you had the time of your life_

_So take the photographs and still frames in your mind  
__Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time  
__Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial  
__For what it's worth, it was worth all the while_

_It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right  
__I hope you had the time of your life_

_It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right  
__I hope you had the time of your life_

_It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right  
__I hope you had the time of your life_

The song came to a close and, once again, the crowd applauded and the women swooned. Sarada herself was the most enthusiastic, blowing a kiss to her boyfriend in appreciation.

It was funny; as he was singing the song, Shinachiku felt an odd sense of closure to the whole experience. It was like the message of the song was effectively telling him that his first true adventure was officially over, and that it was an experience he would never forget and that he was a different person now that it was over. Oh, there would be more missions and adventures to come, that was all a part of life, but now he felt that this particular chapter of his life was one he could at last bring to a close.

"Alright everyone!" the DJ spoke again. "For Shinachiku's final performance tonight, we have a special surprise. You see, his girlfriend, Sarada Uchiha, has requested performing as a duet."

_"HUH?!"_

Shinachiku could not believe what he was hearing as his girlfriend got up on stage with him, much to the approval of the audience.

"Sarada, what are you doing?"

"I figured I'd take pity on you and help you out for this last one. Come on, it'll be fun."

After a couple of seconds of processing, the boy smiled. "Okay."

With that agreed upon, the two of them stood side-by-side, the entire crowd at the restaurant looking at them, as they began to sing...

* * *

"Oh, what a night huh?"

"Yeah, it was nice to see everyone tonight. Its a shame that Sasuke and Karin will be leaving with Sarada soon."

Naruto turned to his wife in surprise. "Oh didn't anyone tell you? They've decided it was time to settle down in the village for a while."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Sasuke told me that after what happened with Uragi, he felt he owed it to Sarada to have a chance at a regular childhood for once. I even offered him a job."

"A job?"

"I'm giving him Odaku's old position; he's going to be my highest ranking captain in the Anbu Black Ops, right up there with Sai."

"That's wonderful...But doesn't he need to take some sort of an examination to make the Anbu?"

"Sakura, he's probably the only ninja in the world who's power is equal to mine. What more qualification does he need?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I can't argue with that."

Taking a seat on the bed with her, Naruto reached out and cupped his bandaged hand onto her cheek. "I know I've already said this...but it means so much to me to have you there by my side."

She took his hand into her own. "You know I'll always have your back Naruto."

"I love you so much."

"I love you too."

He leaned in to claim her lips with his own. It was a kiss she was quick to accept, wrapping her own arms around his neck.

_Moon so bright, night so fine  
Keep your heart here with mine  
Life's a dream, we are dreaming_

Naruto laid her down on the bed, his lips never leaving hers. Their kiss gradually grew more and more passionate. Sakura's hands found themselves leaving his neck and descending lower, down his back.

_Race the moon, catch the wind  
Ride the night to the end  
Seize the day, stand up for the light_

Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled his wife into his lap. As the still continued making out, Naruto's hands found their way to the zipper on the back of her dress.

_I want to spend my lifetime loving you  
If that is all in life I ever do_

The dress was cast down to the floor, as Sakura took her opportunity to reach her hands inside his sweatshirt, feeling up his muscle-bound chest.

_Heroes rise, heroes fall  
Rise again, win it all  
In your heart, can't you feel the glory_

The sweatshirt was cast aside. The two lovers resumed their kiss, their hands eagerly exploring the familiar patterns of each other's bare skin. They remained that way until neither of them could resist their urges and their hands went for each other's pants.

_Through our joy, through our pain  
We can move worlds again  
Take my hand, dance with me  
(Dance with me)_

Their pants were discarded, joining the growing pile of clothes on the floor. Their undergarments were quick to follow. Both of them were now alone, their natural forms laid bare for their lover to behold. Their hands wandered all over one another as Naruto pulled Sakura into his lap and she kissed him with lustful abandon.

_I want to spend my lifetime loving you  
If that is all in life I ever do  
I will want nothing else to see me through  
If I can spend my lifetime loving you_

(Yeah...)

_Though we know we will never come again  
Where there is love, life begins  
Over and over again_

Sakura found herself laying on the smooth, silk sheets of the bed. Her husband moved above her. It was a blissful euphoria as the two of them became one once again. It was a pleasure they would share with each other throughout the night...

_Save the night, save the day  
Save the love, come what may  
Love is worth everything we pay_

_I want to spend my lifetime loving you  
If that is all in life I ever do  
I want to spend my lifetime loving you  
If that is all in life I ever do_

_I will want nothing else to see me through  
If I can spend my lifetime loving you_

_Loving you_

Sakura snuggled closely to her husband, their forms concealed only by the sheets. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

"That was wonderful."

"It always is." Naruto kissed her upon the forehead. "I love you so much Sakura."

"And I love you Naruto, always and forever."

The two lovers shared one more kiss before finally drifting off to sleep...

* * *

The audience burst into their most enthusiastic applause yet after Shinachiku and Sarada finished out their song.

"You know," Shinachiku told her, "you're actually not half bad."

"Thanks."

They leaned in and shared a kiss right there on the stage, earning even more applause.

"Alright! Alright! I think we've had enough of the mushy stuff! Lets give somebody _truly_ awesome a chance at the mic!"

Some spectator in the audience rudely interrupted their moment and stormed onto the stage. Both of the kids were shocked at who it was.

"RANDAMU?!"

"The one and only! Now stand back kids and let a pro show you how it's done!"

With that rather tactless hogging of the spotlight, the Missing-nin With the Mouth made his signals to the band and began rocking out:

_All you women who want a man of the street  
But you don't know which way you want to turn  
Just keep a coming and put your hand out to me  
'Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn_

_I'm gonna take you down - down, down, down  
So don't you fool around  
I'm gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger_

_Shoot to thrill, play to kill  
Too many women with too many pills  
Shoot to thrill, play to kill  
I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will  
Yeah_

_I'm like evil, I get under your skin  
Just like a bomb that's ready to blow  
'Cause I'm illegal, I got everything  
That all you women might need to know_

_I'm gonna take you down - yeah, down, down, down  
So don't you fool around  
I'm gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger_

_Shoot to thrill, play to kill  
Too many women with too many pills  
Shoot to thrill, play to kill  
I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will  
'Cause I shoot to thrill, and I'm ready to kill  
I can't get enough, I can't get the thrill  
I shoot to thrill, play to kill  
Yeah, pull the trigger  
Pull it,_

_Pull it, pull it, pull the trigger_

_Oh  
Shoot to thrill, play to kill  
Too many women, with too many pills  
I said, shoot to thrill, play to kill  
I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will  
'Cause I shoot to thrill, and I'm ready to kill  
And I can't get enough, and I can't get my thrill  
Cause I shoot to thrill, play it again_

_Yeah_

_Shoot you down  
Yeah  
I'm gonna get you to the bottom and shoot you  
I'm gonna shoot you  
Oh hoo yeah yeah yeah_

_I'm gonna shoot you down yeah yeah  
I'm gonna get you down  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah  
Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down  
Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down  
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ooooooh_

_I'm gonna shoot to thrill  
Play to kill  
Shoot to thrill_

_Yeah, ooh yeah_

The audience broke up into applause as Randamu suddenly turned to that invisible camera once again. "What, you didn't really think I'd let the fanfic end without stealing the spotlight one last time, did you?"

* * *

About a week later, a knock was heard on the Hokage's door. "Come in."

The door opened and Shinachiku stepped in through the door. "You wanted to see me, Lord Hokage?"

"Yes, come in."

Shinachiku stood before the Hokage's desk, not sure what he'd been called in for, but he was going to find out soon enough.

"I called you in because the Shinobi Union has come to a decision on what to do about the remaining chakra gems."

That caught the boy's attention. "What did they decide?"

The Hokage leaned back in his chair. "When Taka's infiltration of Konoha failed, it was decided that villages that were part of the Shinobi Union would each take responsibility for one of the four gems, to hide and secure them in a place hidden from the world, somewhere no one but the most loyal of shinobi would know where to find them, so as to make sure to keep them out of Taka's hands." Naruto paused before continuing. "That being said, there are still three more gems left unaccounted for, and it is clear to us that its only a matter of time before those gems are found. It is absolutely imperative that they be found and recovered by the Union before Taka finds them."

"I understand my lord. What is the plan?"

"As per new regulation under Union guidelines, equal opportunity recruitment will be selected from all the affiliate villages, Konoha included. These shinobi will be tasked with periodically following up on any leads that come up about possible locations of the remaining chakra gems. They will need to be young ninja, from the new generation, so that Taka will have less information on them and be less prepared to counter the full range of their abilities. But..." Naruto got up from his desk, "...the thing is..." and stood directly in front of the young man before him now. "...They're going to need a leader."

Shinachiku's eyes widened in disbelief. "Dad...are you saying...?"

Naruto smiled and placed both of his hands on his son's shoulders. "It took a bit of convincing on my part, but yes. Shinachiku, son, the Shinobi Union is appointing you captain of the recovery squad to find the rest of the chakra gems."

Time stood still for the young blonde. This had to be a dream. How could...How could this possibly be real?

"But...But dad...how can they...? I mean, how can they trust me with this? I was seduced by the Power Gem. I've already had it warp my mind."

"Yes, and that means you, more than anyone else from your generation, have the clearest understanding of what the chakra gems are capable of and why their power should not be taken lightly. That kind of hands-on experience will be an invaluable asset to us going forward."

"But I've only been on one _real_ mission before. I'm just a Genin! There must be many more kids out there of higher authority that can—"

"Which brings to my _other_ reason for calling you in today."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Shina, you have some of the best grades out of your entire graduating class, you're recognized across the world now as a shinobi with a very bright and prosperous future, and the story of your first mission has already made you quite famous, just in case you haven't heard. You are only a Genin, and yet _you_ were the one who defeated a traitorous member of the Elders who obtained the power of a god, by sacrificing your own mind as a place for your final battle. Your mother, your Uncle Sasuke and I may have helped, but no matter how you look at it, _you_ we the real hero that day."

"Dad, what are you saying?"

Naruto smiled to himself before looking back at the boy. "Shina, when I was only five years older than you, Granny Tsunade stunned me by giving me an honorary promotion to Chūnin, foregoing the exams altogether...And now, it fills me with so much pride that I can do the same thing for my own son."

_"WHAT?!"_

"That's right. Now please, get on one knee."

"But, but dad—?"

"Shina, please, take a knee."

His father's voice was utterly calm, comforting, and it filled him with confidence and self-assurance. He knew that after this moment his life would never be the same, but if his father truly believed in him, than that was all he needed. "Alright dad."

The blonde got on one knee and looked up at his father as the elder Uzumaki began to speak.

"Shinachiku Uzumaki, do you swear to continue to hold to the ideals of this village and it's heritage?"

"I swear."

"Do you swear to continue to improve yourself, both in mind and in body, for the furthering of your shinobi career and livelihood?"

"I swear."

"And do you swear to cast aside all selfish ambition and pledge yourself to the added responsibilities you will be given as a defender of this village and it's people?"

"I swear!"

"Then as of this moment, I, Naruto Uzumaki, son of Minato Namikaze, and Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, hereby dub you, Shinachiku Uzumaki, Chūnin of Konohagakure! Now…rise!"

Shinachiku Uzumaki got back up on his feet, a sudden flaring of pride coursing through his body. A smile graced his face because of it. "Thank you so much."

"You earned this son, and don't let anybody tell you that you haven't." Something overcame the jinchūriki in that moment, tears were beginning to well up, and suddenly he embraced his son in an emotional hug. "I'm so proud of you Shina."

Shinachiku returned the hug right back. "Arigato...father."

When the hug finally broke up, Shinachiku felt like a whole new man. "Wow, wait until mom and Hanami hear about this!"

"Not to mention that girlfriend of yours, eh champ?" The elder blonde nudged his elbow into the boy for emphasis.

"DAD!"

"Gomen, gomen, I was just kidding. Tell you what, it's almost noon now, how about we go get your mom, your sister and your grandparents and all go out for lunch? You'll be able to tell them all the good news."

"Yeah!"

As father and son left the office, they closed the door behind them. This was truly the start of a whole new generation. And who knew what kind of dangers and adventures awaited that new generation in the future...

* * *

In a far away, unknown part of the world, a lone shinobi was walking down the darkly lit hallways of a hidden layer. Further and further he walked, until at last he came to a large, metal door. Two guards stood protecting it.

The ninja stood straight an stiff, making a fist with his right hand and pressed it to his heart. The two guards returned the gesture, before opening the door and granting the ninja passage inside.

The ninja walked through the door and came into a dark room lit with torches. There was a throne at he end of the hall. In that throne sat a mysterious figure, hidden in shadow.

Approaching the throne, the ninja made his salute before taking a knee. "Master, word has spread and our intel has been confirmed. The Shinobi Union has instituted an initiative to secure the remaining chakra gems ahead of us. Shinachiku Uzumaki has been chosen to lead them."

The mysterious figure sat there in silence for only a moment. "First Uragi allows himself to be discovered, then he threatens to use the gem's power against us, then he allows Uzumaki's son to defeat him, then Konoha and the other Great Shinobi Nations begin weeding out our agents, stunting our good work, and now _**this?!**_"

"My...My lord," the ninja dared to speak with an intense feeling of nervousness. "P-Perhaps they will fail? After all, he is only a boy."

"So am I."

The mysterious figure stood up from his throne and came into the light of the flickering flame...It was a young man with bushy black hair, the sides of which were shaven and blonde in color, with a dagger-like tattoo under his left eye and a pair of piercings on his right eyebrow. He wore a violet infinity scarf and belt, white overalls with his chest exposed, and a black vest trench coat. He also had an elaborate black sigil tattooed on the left side of his body which spread over his face, chest, and arm, which glowed red and grew whenever he prepared for battle.

"L-Lord Kawaki, what would you have us do?"

"Hmm..." There was only a moment's thinking from the young leader before he gave his order. "Send additional units out across the world. Try to beat the Shinobi Union to the gems if you can, but if not, keep a close watch on Uzumaki's son and his friends. Their hard work might actually be to our advantage yet."

"Hai! But what of the gems that the Union have already claimed from us?"

"All in good time. Gather intel, learn all you can about where they are hiding the gems and makes sure all precautions are made. Only when all precautions are taken may we then strike."

"As you wish master." The ninja stood up and made his salute. "HAIL TAKA!" With that, the Taka ninja began marching out of his master's chamber's.

When the door closed, Kawaki was left alone once more. Sitting back on his throne, he let out an evil smile and repeated his order's signature salute. "Hail Taka..."

* * *

"You're sure?"

"Yes sir, Taka are on the move. With there now being a race to find the last three chakra gems, neither the Union or Taka will leave anything to chance."

"Hmm...I must say, it is very good to see you again after all this time...Kabuto."

A figure that was kneeing down then took that as his signal to stand back up and lower the hood of his maroon-colored cloak. The man had scaly patterns on his face with ash-grey hair that was an unkempt bowl cut. He had onyx eyes with purple markings on them, and a long, white snake fused to him body.

"I too must admit that it is quite nostalgic to see you in the flesh again...Lord Orochimaru."

Kabuto's former master smirked. He was a tall man with a very snake-like visage.: his skin was fair in tone, his eyes were golden with slitted pupils, around his eyes were black markings, his cheekbones were pronounced and his teeth were sharp and fang-like. His hair was long black hair was tied in a ponytail, allowing two locks to frame the sides of his face. He was dressed in an elegant black and white robe.

"I am pleased to see that you survived your encounter with our dear Sasuke and all of his friends."

"Honestly, my lord, Sasuke being there was a half-expected surprise. It was really Naruto and Sakura that I was lending my services to."

"Ah yes, Jiraiya and Tsunade's old pupils. How could I forget?" The fallen snake Sannin made a signal with his head for his old servant to follow him.

The pair came into another room, one filled with extremely advanced laboratory equipment and technology, including large tanks filled with a curious green liquid.

"Kabuto," Orochimaru said, "you were wise to turn down Taka's offer to join in their quest after you developed the serums for them. And you were even wiser to bring those formulas back to me."

The snake casually walked over to a metal cabinet door and unlocked it. Freezing cold air came out of the inside of it, as he pulled out two vials filled with blood.

On one the vials was written a single name: _UZUMAKI, NARUTO_. On the other: _UCHIHA, SASUKE_.

"Hard to believe its already been eighteen years since one of my followers scooped these samples up from the ruins of the Valley of the End." Orochimaru then looked to his side. "And now look how far we've come."

Inside the room with the two snake masters was a giant tank filled with the green liquid, but there was something else inside the tank as well...a man!

It was a young man, say in his early-to-late teens. The man was naked, revealing that he was in physically superior condition. His hair was black with blonde tips and bangs hanging over one of his eyes. His eyes were closed, but they were blue with mesmerizing onyx pupils. And on each of his cheeks were three distinctive markings similar to a fox's whiskers.

Kabuto looked to his master. "You think it will be time soon?"

Orochimaru smiled. "Oh yes...very soon. This world is changing Kabuto, and we all need to be ready to confront it. This..."

The Snake paused to take in the perfect specimen he had created from the blood of the two most powerful ninja of the last generation. "..._This_ is the beginning of a new age..."

* * *

And there you have it! That is the end of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!" Did I meet your expectations? I hope so, because I really had a lot to cover in this epilogue.

Man, where to begin? Well, I knew that I wanted the chapter to open up with Shinachiku recovering in the hospital, just because that seemed like the most obvious place to pick up with our main character after the last chapter. I also wanted to squeeze in one more mental chat with him and Kurama before his reunion with the two most important girls in his life, Hanami and Sarada. I'm actually sorry Hanami did not have a bigger role in this chapter than she did, but sadly the chapter just did not flow in the direction to make her fit. Too bad.

There were two romantic scenes between Naruto and Sakura here, the latter of which I'll discuss later. The first I felt was sweet as he is watching over her after she passed out of literally working too hard nonstop to heal people after the battle, which I feel is a testament to her. The conversation between them allowed for Sakura to give him almost therapeutic advice about what he should do going forward. It kind of reminded me of the friendship between Kirk and Bones in "Star Trek." In some classic episodes like "Balance of Terror", or in films like "The Wrath of Khan", or most recently in "Star Trek Beyond", Bones would sometimes find himself acting as Kirk's therapist, the person he would turn to when he was in periods of personal turmoil, or if he was emotionally overwhelmed with the pressures of command. I always imagined that, even in the canon universe, Sakura would most likely fulfill that role for Naruto in his adult life, her or Shikamaru (probably both).

The reason I blew up Naruto's prosthetic arm in the last chapter was because I wanted this moment that I'd set up form the earliest chapters where Sasuke finally decides that he has redeemed himself and chooses to have his own missing limb reattached. This way the two friends can go through the process together, like it ought to have been the first time around.

The scene of Naruto and Sasuke looking at each other in the mirror and wondering when they suddenly got so old was a reference to "Gravity Falls." In "A Tale of Two Stans," one of the final scenes has Stan and Ford looking in a mirror and Stan wondering when they both became old men. Ford also quips about how Stan looks like their father, similar to how here Sasuke says Naruto looks like Obito with blonde hair (a curious visual similarity I deliberately chose not to point out until this moment).

I also felt that it would being Sasuke full circle to give him the opportunity to wish for his clan to come back to life and choosing not to. He has finally come full circle with that part of his life now that he has seen how at peace they are in the Pure Land.

The scene between Minato and Shinachiku was nice, but I found the one between Sakura and Kushina even more emotional to write, and I even got to do one more big payoff with Naruto's book. And yes, Kushina teases her new daughter-in-law about her and Naruto's sex life. I know that might seem weird, but it seemed like the kind of thing that Kushina would do. Besides, we know that Naruto got a lot of his personality from his mother, and both of them were jinchūrikis, so I have a theory that he might have inherited his libido from her as well...I'll let you decide if that creeps you out or not.

While we're talking about Naruto, you may have noticed that there were several points in this chapter where his actions may have seemed...suspect. His off-the-books offering Sasuke the Soul Stone, his 'interrogation' of Uragi (a scene very much inspired by Zuko's visiting Ozai in prison at the end of "Avatar: The Last Airbender"), using the Soul Stone to keep his father alive after he got back Kurama's Yin half, and, in two possible moments of nepotism, giving his best friend and his son two very important positions of power. This is meant to plant some _possible_ seeds for the future, but that is all I'm going to say.

We got the formation of the Shinobi Union here. Earlier I held that poll where I asked you guys to vote on whether I should rewrite earlier chapters to be more consistent with canon. I took your advice and kept it as it was, and instead I just established it here, as a direct counter to Taka's uprising.

By the way, that ending joke when the Union get its name, was inspired by the end of the three-part pilot of "Justice League," where Flash and Superman had that exchange.

I also had to pay off both Naruto little bet during their battle with Uragi and Shinachiku and Sarada's karaoke date. They were fun to write, especially the latter scene.

There were three songs included in this chapter. The first was "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" by Green Day. A fairly simple song, I chose to include it for the sense of finality it offered. Its like I was actively asking you, my readers, whether you had a great time reading this story...Plus, of a more selfish level, the title of the song may or may not have reflected a sense of relief I felt at finally making it to the end of this story. LOL!

The second song was "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You" by Mark Anthony and Tina Arena. The song was written as the romantic ballad for the movie "The Mask of Zorro." It might seem odd to some of you that I chose a Latin song to go with a story based on a Japanese manga, but I felt like it fit...

...And while I'm on the subject, that brings me to the 'love scene' between Naruto and Sakura. Look, I already said that I think I pushed the limits of my T rating, so I tried to make it as clean(ish) and subtle as I could, the eroticism instead coming form the imagery your own mind conjures instead a lot of over the top obscenity Like I've done in other stories.

The third song was "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC. This was intentionally an awkward choice. I wanted Randamu to get in one more appearance and deliver a exciting, hard rocking song that totally clashed with the tone I'd set up earlier. I though it would be an awesome sendoff for him.

You may have guessed it, but Naruto promoting Shinachiku to Chūnin was a direct callback to when Tsunade did the same to him way back in Chapter 6.

...

Alright, about those last two scenes. Yes, they were meant to plant seeds for the future. We finally learn the identity of Taka's master, and it turns out to be Kawaki. For those of you who don't know, this character was introduced in the beginning to the Boruto manga as a lone ninja seeking to wipe out the ninja world and he and Boruto square off after he's destroyed much of the village, including the Hokage Rock...I'll leave it to you guys to come up with your own theories about where this could potentially go...

As for the second scene, I wanted something that would _really_ catch you guys off guard. So I got this crazy idea of finally bringing in Orochimaru, along with Kabuto, who we haven't seen since his escape in Chapter 27. The reveal that, for some reason, Orochimaru has used samples of both Naruto's and Sasuke's blood to clone some kind of genetic superhuman...well, I really don't know where we could go with that. By all means, feel free to theorize.

Whew! That was a lot to cover. I honestly didn't expect this chapter to go on for so long...but perhaps I shouldn't be surprised?

Well, I guess that's it. The story is over, and what a ride it was. I want thank you all once again for all of your support and your enthusiasm for this story; you guys were half the reason I found the inspiration to keep going, despite all of the hurdles that kept getting in my way. I could not have asked for better fans!

Once again, until next time, see ya!


	55. Author's Commentary 3

Hey guys, thesaiyanjedi here, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to offer up one final little addendum to Shinachiku's First Adventure."

I wanted to reiterate how much of a pleasure it was to write this story for all of you, my fellow members of the NaruSaku fan community. Since I started, two years have passed since the manga came to an end and now the anime has pretty much caught up with the manga. The only chapter they have left to directly adapt is Chapter 700, even though they did translate the very last page.

Incidentally, the anime's adaptation of Chapter 699 did give me some inspiration to go back in and tweek a couple of very minor details, specifically that Sasuke was locked in a prison cell with seals over his eyes, that Shikamaru was made one of Kakashi's advisers during his time as Hokage, and that Naruto would have to go through some comically excessive study time to make Jōnin. These were things that, retroactively, made sense to me that I felt I could squeeze in without anyone noticing and would not change a thing. But I digress...

The main thing I wanted to talk about was what writing this story did for me, personally, as a NaruSaku fan. While writing this story was very much an exercise in creative expression and getting an idea out there for a story, I also found writing this to become...'therapeutic' I suppose is the word. What I mean by that is that as the story got bigger and bigger and took longer and longer for me to write, and as my real life went through a number of changes along the way, big and small, I found myself slowly but surely transcending through the five stages of grief that NaruSaku did not happen until now I feel like I've reached the point that, I think, a lot of us NaruSaku fans have reached by this point...acceptance.

Now, when I say that, I do NOT mean accepting that NaruHina and SasuSaku happened and forcing ourselves to like it. No, I merely mean accepting the reality that this is how the story ended in the real world (i.e. canon), but we personally would have preferred something different and, in our opinion, better. And to be completely fair, there have been other franchises where popular pairings did not come to pass that were much more appalling than this. I still remember back when I was in middle school and Digimon Adventure 02 ended with Sora dating and later marrying Matt instead of Tai (or Taichi and Yamato if you prefer the Japanese naming)...All these years later and I _still_ feel that was a bizarre choice, but that's just me. I also thought it was really obvious that Ash and Misty from Pokémon were being set up as a couple, until Misty stopped being a main character and we got into a pattern of Ash getting a new female traveling companion every season, none of which he ever thinks to ask out on a date...And yes, I know about what is apparently going on between him and Serena, but I haven't seen very much of that season and, I'm sorry, but Misty was the Pokémon girl of my generation anyway...Where was I going with this? Oh yeah!

My point in all of this is that I feel like writing "Shinachiku's First Adventure" has done a lot for me as a NaruSaku fan. It has allowed me to create my own alternative ending to a series I enjoyed but was let down by the creator's decisions to end his series. And I understand, Naruto is Masashi Kishimoto's creation and he does have the right to end his story any way he chooses, whatever the motivations for it may have been. But I saw the series going in the different direction than the creator was and I reflect that in my writing.

Do I still love NaruSaku? YES! Yes I do, and those who disagree with me are entitled to their opinion, so long as I am allowed to have mine. The way I'm coming to think of it, the canon ending is sort of like one reality where certain decisions were made by these characters and certain events happened, while my own SFA continuity is an alternate reality where it went a different, but I feel equally plausible way. Naruto has already explored this concept in the film _Road to Ninja_, where Naruto and Sakura are transported into a genjutsu world where everyone they know exists as their opposite. Some of you might argue that that world wasn't real, merely a genjutsu, but I recall that Tenten somehow ended up in that same reality during the War arc and, amusingly, the Naruto of that universe (Menma) was stuck is a Sasuke-esc situation where Hinata and Sakura were both constantly fighting over him, while the Sakura of that world was not attracted to Sasuke at all because, with his clan still alive, he was allowed to grow up to be a womanizing playboy instead of an emo revenge seeker. If one reality exists where Sakura was attracted to Naruto, why can't there be another? Every choice we make creates a different reality, so the theory says, creating a seemingly infinite series of possible realities, some so similar to our own that we can spend a lifetime trying to track down even the slightest difference, while other realities seem so different from our own that they defy comprehension...

...Okay, assuming I haven't just put all of you to sleep with my exploration of the alternative reality theory, I will say that this is a way I am coming to look at my own continuity of Naruto stories. The canon ending is what it is, and this is my idea for an alternate path that I've come up with and wanted to share, simple as that. That's kind of what all fanfiction is really, a bunch of fans putting out their ideas for stories based on their favorite series and, maybe, steering it in direction they would prefer that series to go, regardless of whatever the "real" path of the story ends of being.

...

So, does any of this mean I am done writing for NaruSaku? ...Nope! I still have some ideas that I look forward to figuring out and, hopefully, sharing with all of you someday! But I am also interested in exploring other fandoms as well. Evangelion, Avatar, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Gravity Falls...who knows?! We'll just have to see what the future holds.

One thing I do feel certain about (at least at the time of this writing), is that I doubt I will be writing anything as lengthy as SFA anytime soon. This was my very first fanfic and it went for 51 chapters that took me two years to finish. That was a much bigger commitment than I originally planned on, so whatever comes in the future I expect will be a lot shorter in length...Then again, you never know.

I think that's all I have to say. Thank you all so, so much for sticking with me on this journey. This was a very personal project that I put literally every idea I had into and what you have read over the last two years was the result. As I said in the final chapter, I could not have asked for better fans!

And so, until next time, see ya!


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